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IN MEMORIAM. 



The Rev. Charles Hawley, D. D. 
i8 19-1885. 



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IN MEMORIAM. 



The Rev.CharlesHawleYjD.D. 

Founder and First President of the 

Cayuga County Historical Society. 



THE PROCEEDINGS 

of a Special Meeting of the Society, held Nov. 28, 1885, 

and a 

MEMORIAL ADDRESS, 

deHvered before the Society, March 9, 1886, 
by 

Rev. Willis J. Beecher, D. D. 
WITH APPENDIX. 



AUBURN, N. Y.. 
KNAPP, PECK & THOMSON, BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS. 



!»if»W««^««U»i||)iML.-IJMJIia8MW»3l 



/7 5? 



On Friday evening, November 13, 1885, Dr. Hawley was 
suddenly prostrated by a stroke of paralysis. The attack was 
a serious one, and, though he afterward partially rallied, yet 
from the first only the faintest hopes were entertained of his 
recovery. He lingered until Thanksgiving day, Thursday, 
November 26. On that day pneumonia set in, and death 
insued at ten o'clock in the evening. 



Gift 

The 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



A special meeting of the Cayuga County Historical Society 
was called Saturday evening, November 28, 1885, to take 
action on the death of its founder and president, the Rev. 
Charles Hawley, D. D. The meeting was largely attended, and 
deep feeling was manifested. The president's vacant chair was 
draped in mourning. Gen. W. II. Seward, vice-president, 
called the meeting to order and said : 

" It is my painful duty to make official announcement of the 
death of the respected and much loved president of this society. 
This sad event occurred at his residence in this city, at about 
ten o'clock Thursday evening, November 26, 1885. The Rev. 
Charles Hawley, D. D., was the founder of the Cayuga County 
Historical Society, in the year 1876, and from then until now 
he has remained its only president. He was its earnest and 
active friend from the beginning, and has done more than any 
other person to promote its welfare and carry forward its laud- 
able aim, to collect and preserve correct records of local events. 
His work on earth is completed and his memory now passes 
into that history which he himself did so much to retain and 
perpetuate. His life has been one of usefulness and good 
works, and while we now mourn the loss of our faithful presi- 
dent, the community regrets the removal by death of a just 
and liberal citizen, and many of us here to-night will remem- 
ber him as one of our best and dearest friends. We are not to 
forget that his good deeds and their influence will live after 
him, and that the whole community is better for his life among 
us. 

The history of Dr. Hawley's life and public services will, I 
trust, form the subject of an extended, interesting and instruc- 



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tive paper, later on, to be contributed to the archives of this 
association in which he took so deep an interest, and it should 
be our early duty to secure a faithful record of one whose 
labors and untiring energy in behalf of others has entered so 
largely into the history of our city for more than a quarter of 
a century. 

The vacant chair which he occupied with so much dignity at 
our meetings for the past ten years reminds us of his pleasant, 
genial face and cordial manner, ready to give a hearty greeting 
to each associate as they came. Courteous and agreeable to all 
alike, he had a way of making those with whom he came in 
contact love and respect him. lie was the trusted adviser of 
man}'^, and those who sought his counsel or sympathy always 
found in him a willing ear and helpful hand. God has given 
to but few all the noble traits possessed by Charles Hawley, 
and there was much in his character that we might well adopt 
and follow as the example of a pure man, an unselfish neigh- 
bor, and a friend to be trusted in time of need. 

It is therefore most fitting that this meeting of the Cayuga 
County Historical Society should be held, to express the feel- 
ings of regret and sympathy which its members entertain at 
the loss of their president and fellow associate." 

The Rev. Willis J. Beecher, Hon. B. B. Snow, and Professor 
Geo. R Cutting were appointed a committee to report resolu- 
tions for the action of the society. The committee subse- 
quently reported the following : 

Whereas, It has seemed good to our Heavenly Father to 
remove from us Rev. Charles Hawley, D. D., the president of 
this society from its organization ; who deceased Nov. 26th, 
1885, in the 67th year of his age, and the 42nd of his service 
in the ministry of the gospel ; therefore, 

Resolved^ First, that we hereby express our sense of the great 
loss we sufter in the removal of Dr. Hawley ; the loss to this 



— i> 



society of a faithful and devoted member and presiding officer ; 
the loss to each of us, personally, of a friend, highly esteemed 
and deeply loved ; the loss to the community of one, who, as 
a citizen and a Christian pastor, was widely known, was trusted 
by all, and was greatly influential for good. 

Second, that we express our appreciation of the importance 
of the services whicli Dr. Hawley has rendered to this society, 
and through this society to the public ; using his gifts and his 
influence for securing due recognition of the value of the work 
of preserving historical materials, and of making historical 
investigations ; and himself accomplishing results in the study 
of American history, such as have secured to him an honora- 
ble place among men distinguished in these studies. 

Third, that we especially express our conviction of the value 
of the work he has done, in calling attention to the labors of 
the early missionaries of the Rom.an Catholic church, among 
the tribes formerly inhabiting the region of central and western 
New York ; we are proud to recognize the heroic deeds of these 
men as a part of the history of our country ; and rejoice in the 
hope that work of this kind done by Dr. Hawley and by others 
of the same spirit with him, will have its influence in promoting 
catholicity of feeling among all who bear the Christian name. 

Fourth, that in token of our respect for Dr. Hawley, and of 
our mourning for his loss, the rooms of the society be properly 
draped ; and that we accept the invitation of his family to 
attend the funeral services. 

Fifth, that this action be entered upon the minutes of the 
society ; that a copy of it be presented to the family of Dr. 
Hawley, with the expression of our earnest sympathy with 
them in their sorrow ; that copies be offered for publication to 
the daily papers of Auburn, and that copies of papers contain- 
ing it be sent to the societies with which this society is in cor- 
respondence. 



- 6 - 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the presiding 
officer invited the members to speak, when short and feeling 
addresses were made by Judge Hall, Prof. R. B. Welch, John 
H. Osborne, Prof. W. J. Beecher, James Seymour, Jr., Profes- 
sor Geo. P. Cutting, the Rev. W. H. Allbright, the Rev. C. C. 
Hemenway, Lewis E. Lyon, John W, O'Brien, B. B. Snow, 
F. I Allen, and Major W. G. Wise. 

Messrs. L. E. Lyon, J. H. Osborne, and D. M. Dunning were 
appointed a committee to drape the rooms in mourning, after 
which the meeting adjourned. 

Of the gentlemen who made addresses at the meeting, the 
following have kindly, at the request of the society, furnished 
abstracts. 

REMARKS OF HON. B. F. HALL. 

General Seward : 

I came here in response to your invitation to participate in 
the proceedings of this society to manifest its sorrow for the 
decease of its beloved and eminent president, and to pay appro- 
priate tribute to his character and memory. Although the 
occasion is a sad one for us all, I esteem it a privilege to be 
here and to mingle my humble homage with yours. 

Doctor Hawley was a superior man in his vocation, and in 
all his varied positions and relations — theological, political, 
official and social. By nature and by culture he was capable 
of filling and honoring any position in society, and in the gov- 
ernment, to which he might be called. That qualification was 
recognized by your father, when he selected him for the dip- 
lomatic mission to St. Thomas. He was capable of searching 
deeply into profound subjects, as his papers read before you at 
various times amply attest. By his researches into the hazy 
depths of American Archaeology and Ethnology, while president 
of this society, he became an erudite and famous antiquarian. 



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And by his genial disposition and manners, he magnetized and 
charmed everybody with whom he was associated in this soci- 
ety, and elsewhere in his summerings abroad. And]]^as he was 
the founder of this society, its president since it was organized, 
and its principal pillar, this meeting and your address were 
timely, to afford us all the opportunity to pay some tribute to 
his memory. I cheerfully concur in the expressions of sorrow 
and tribute expressed in the resolutions reported by the com- 
mittee, and also in your suggestion that a careful biography of 
Dr. Hawley's life and public services shall be prepared and 
deposited in the archives of this society to be preserved in a 
permanent form. That should be done for the benefit of the 
present and future members of this society, as a tribute of grat- 
itude to him. It should be done moreover, for the benefit of 
kindred societies in this and other lands. But whether his 
biography shall be deposited in a printed or written form on 
paper or parchment in your archives or not, his great works 
will survive long after the contents of your archives shall have 
crumbled into dust. Dr. Hawley lived for immortality and 
attained it. He is still alive. I have known Dr. Hawley well 
for eight and twenty years, and some of the time I have held 
confidential intercourse with him. I admired him at first, as a 
clergyman of superior talents and qualifications for his voca- 
tion. As time rolled apace and duties outside of his vocation 
as a pastor devolved upon him, I was charmed with him. I 
perceived then that he was an intellectual and courageous Her- 
cules, capable of great achievements in great national emer- 
gencies. As a divine I then thought that he resembled my 
ideal of the great apostle to the Gentiles, more than of any other 
character known to history, and, as a statesman, Alexander 
Hamilton, who by a marvelous inspiration " had the laws and 
the constitution by heart." From that time onward, I revered 
him as a sage. 



After the termination of the war, during which we were 
temporarily separated by official duties elsewhere, we renewed 
our intercourse with each other, when I found his views, senti- 
metits and tastes upon historical subjects, to be in harmony 
with my own. During the interval between the death of your 
venerable grandfather. Judge Miller, under whose inspiration 
I had secured from further desecration the vestiges on Fort 
Hill, and erected the shaft to perpetuate the memory of Logan, 
I had been entirely alone here, with no congenial associate to 
confer with upon the subject of American antiquities or any 
similar theme. I esteemed this discovery of his relish for sub- 
jects which had for many years been so interesting to me, a 
God-send to me. It relieved the tedium of my loneliness very 
considerably, and made his company grateful. And I have 
good reasons for believing that our friendship was reciprocal, 
so that we often revealed and confided to each other our 
respective experiences, necessities and premonitions of mental 
and physical enfeeblement by disease and age. He was afflicted 
for years with an annual attack of what is generally called 
" hay fever," and was obliged to seek the climate of the Cats- 
kills to endure it. And, although he seemed to recover his 
strength and vigor, whilst there during the hay-flowering sea- 
son, he often said to me after his return to Auburn and to his 
clerical duties, that he was conscious that that disease was grad- 
ually impairing his constitution, and rendering his confinement 
to his vocation more and more irksome. 

He not only had profound esteem for your father in his life- 
time, and enjoyed his society and confidence, but had implicit 
faith in all his suggestions respecting the means to avoid men- 
tal rust. He heard your father say, upon his return home 
from his journey around the world, that whilst some thought 
him presumptuous at his time of life, to undertake such a 
journey, he found that some such change of occupation and 
scenery was indispensable to him to avoid inevitable rust. If 



- 9 - 

I overstep the rules of confidential propriety in reverting to 
that circumstance here, I shall hope to be pardoned by those 
who, like myself, have known ever since, that that example of 
your father, prompted by that reason, was the moving reason 
of his early desire to engage in such literary employments as 
Historical Societies would demand. He fancied that the em- 
ployments of a society like this would produce in him relaxa- 
tion from the monotony and steady drng and draft of his voca- 
tion, and consequently rest. And he imparted his ideas upon 
the subject very freely to me, before he undertook the work. 
I promised him all the assistance in my power; but I declined 
on account of my age and former services in another similar 
society, to take a " laboring oar." Hence, T have since assisted 
him in his investigations in all the ways in my power, and have 
been delighted with his success. I have feared lately that he 
was laboring too hard in this new field to obtain any rest from 
the change ; but I feel assured that it was indispensable for him 
in the outset, and I have no reason for believing that his labors 
in this new field have materially shortened his days. 

This, however, I certainly know, his papers upon the Civil- 
ization of the Stone Age, upon Hiawatha the Founder of the 
Iroquois Confederacy and his translations of the journals of the 
Jesuit Missionaries, of their devoted labors among the Indians, 
with his enlightened comments thereon, have secured for his 
name an enduring fame, and embalmed his memory in the hearts 
of the disciples of enlightened and tolerant Christianity 
throughout the land. 

REMARKS OF PROF. R. B. WELCH, D. D., LL. D. 

On Thanksgiving day, I was summoned to the funeral of a 
dear frienil in the eastern part of our state. A good and godly 
woman who for ten j^ears had suffered from a severe stroke of 
paralysis, and bent and broken both in body and in mind, had 



- 10 - 

at length yielded up her life. Sincere mourners followed her 
palsied body to the tomb. 

Keturning from the funeral, as I was in sadness musing on 
the deep mystery of human life and death, I casually took up a 
paper which startled me with the announcement of the death 
of Kev. Dr. Charles Hawley of Auburn, that occurred on the 
evening' of Thanksgiving day. When I reached home, the 
first letter that I opened was a call from the Cayuga County 
Historical Society, to attend a meeting of its members, in 
memory of its late, lamented president 

I rise to second witii all my heart the resolutions of respect 
jnst offered to our deceased and honored president, Rev. Dr. 
Hawley. 

The official chair is vacant and draped. This official place 
which knew him so long and so familiarly, will know him no 
more forever. We shall no more listen to his manly voice and 
his words of wisdom, which have here so often charmed and 
instructed us. 

This society is especially called to mourn. One of the fore- 
most founders of the society, one of its most constant and sym- 
pathetic friends, its honored and successful leader for ten years, 
its first and only president, has been removed from us by 
death. By one fell stroke, in the full strength of his manhood, 
and in the maturity of his experience and wisdom, when we had 
hoped that Dr. Hawley might continue to be the president of 
this society for another decade, suddenly he was stricken down 
by the ruthless hand of death. " The silver cord was loosed, 
and the golden bowl was broken." 

All that our lamented president has done for this society, 
I do not propose to recount. Indeed it is better known to 
some of you who have been with him as its active members from 
the first. But in this respect, the Historical Society is itself 
his fitting, enduring memorial. To best appreciate this, we need 
but trace its steady progress hitherto, and look around us now. 



- 11 - 

His own choice contributions and annual addresses constitute 
an important part of its literature and furnishing. His pains- 
taking and skillful translations form an interesting portion of its 
lasting endowment. His honored name and noble example 
will prove a living inspiration for the time to come. We have 
already one who has himself become historic, as a member of 
this Historical society. It is an incentive and an encourage- 
ment to others. By death he has been removed from us, but 
he is living still and will live in his cherished memory, in his 
worthy example, in his inspiring influence. We shall remem- 
ber him gladly and lovingly in his purity of character, in his 
strength of intellect, in his breadth of sympathy. 

Seldom have we met with a better balance of strength and 
simplicity of character, of manliness and modesty, of general 
sympathy and personal affection, of pastoral fidelity and social 
activity, of patriotism and prudence, in a word, of civic and 
Christian virtues. 

We felt assured that he was an earnest and true friend of 
others, and that he was a sympathetic and personal friend of 
each of us. He was a man of profound convictions and of 
fearless utterance, loyal to duty and a faithful servant of Christ, 
yet if he has enemies, T am not aware of it ; and if he has had 
enemies, I believe he has won them to respect and friendship 
by the purity of his character and the consistency of his life. 
During his brief and fatal illness I have heard and answered 
anxious inquiries concerning him from every rank of life in 
Auburn. With our grief at his loss all our fellow citizens will 
personally sympathize, for with one accord they loved and hon- 
ored him. 

On my return to-day along the valley of the Hudson, I passed 
the place of his birth and his boyhood. In my early ministry, 
for several years I was a pastor in that town. Dr. Hawley was 
then preaching in Lyons. He was a stranger to me; but I 
heard the people of Catskill speak of him with affection and 



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pride. They remembered him with fondness as he grew up 
with thera. They welcomed his return as he was wont to come 
to Catskill for his vacations; and thence, with lifelong friends, 
set out from Catskill for the mountains, near at hand, which 
he loved so well. 

Last summer I was in Catskill and at the mountains. How 
vividly I remember to-night that, as I registered my name at 
the Catskill Mountain House, almost the first question which I 
answered was: " When is Dr. Hawley coming?" and that, to 
my answer, " Next week, I believe. Dr. and Mrs. Hawley are 
coming,"' how heartily they clapped their hands. If I had at 
the moment in the least suspected their sincerity and their 
unselfish friendship, every trace of suspicion would have been 
banished by the repeated tributes of loving regard for Dr, and 
Mrs. Hawley which I heard from the host and hostess at the 
Mountain House. Indeed, they spoke of Dr. Hawley as inti- 
mately related to the history and success of that historic enter- 
prise on the mountain, much as we, this evening, speak of his 
relation to tlie history and success of the Cayuga County His- 
torical Society. They of the Mountain House, host and hostess 
and patrons, and they of Catskill, all that knew him, will miss 
him and mourn for him as for a son and a brother beloved and 
honored. 

It is not fitting for me to take your time this evening, by 
telling you how as my personal friend for many years I have 
truly loved him — how I have been increasingly impressed with 
his wisdom and loyalty as a tried and true friend of Auburn 
Theological Seminary — how I have grown in respect for his 
prudence and discretion as a co-presbyter in the Cayuga Pres- 
bytery — how I have more and more prized his ministry, and 
seen him as my pastor ripening in the Christian graces and 
maturing for Heaven — and how deeply I feel that in the pas- 
torate of the First Presbyterian Church of Auburn, in the 
Board of Trustees of Auburn Theological Seminary, and in the 



- 13 - 

Presbytery of Cayuga, we sustain a loss that seems almost 
beyond repair. 

Again, I heartily second these resolutions of respect for one 
whom we all delight to honor and whose memory should be 
embalmed and perpetuated in the records of the Cayuga County 
Historical Society, 

EEMARKS OF MR. JOHN H. OSBORNE. 

The judgments of men concerning their fellow men are not 
seldom formed upon superficial evidence. The estimates of a 
man's character and abilities are often based upon what the 
circumstances of his life have made him, upon what in his call- 
ing he outwardly appe<irs to men to be. Not a few are the 
men able to do something more than they yet have done or 
have become, but whose ability has remained all undevel- 
oped under the oi'dinary tests and trials that the ordinary acts 
and duties of their vocation have put upon them. This may 
be a common and M'ell-worn sa3'ing, but we all who knew well 
our beloved president, through many years of companionship 
and friendship, will agree that the truth of it has received new 
illustration and confirmation in his life and character. 

Diligent and faithful as he was, first of all, in his sacred call- 
ing, yet his active mind was ever busy with all that was pass- 
ing of thought or of action in our busy world, and no event of 
moment went by unnoticed or unanalyzed by his accurate and 
incisive faculties. 

His knowledge of men was broad, and keen was his search 
into the motives of human designs*and actions. Keen also was 
that fine moral insight, by which, under guidance of the Divine 
Word, he drew from them and taught to us all the lessons of 
wisdom and righteousness. He was intensely practical in every 
thing, and was ever learning all facts having a practical bearing 
upon our every day life, and his best thoughts and counsel 



- 14- 

were freely given for the better welfare and comfort of all 
classes of our citizens. 

While firmly conservative in his theological system, he was 
fully alive to and sympathetic with all that was good in every 
man of every name or clime ; and we have known this when 
in private converse with him upon any subject that drew upon 
his sympathies, or moved him to the utterance of his always 
true and honest judgments. In this last regard, however, he 
was most tenderly sensitive and careful, always studious that 
naught of ill or wrong, not plainly appearing so to be, should 
be expressed concerning the deeds or words of others. 

In the exercise of any other business or profession, his strong 
mind and proved capacity would have carried him to assured 
eminence and success; but he loved the work of his sacred 
office and was devoutly thankful, always, that in following it, 
he had obeyed his Master's call. He had, in great measure, 
that spirit of self-sacrifice which he found and so often loved to 
portray in the hearts of those devoted Catholic Fathers who 
gave up their lives in endeavoring to plant the cross in this 
new world. In his " Early Chapters of Cayuga History," there 
is a touching tribute to one of the most faithful and laborious 
of these missionaries, quoted and translated from the work of 
Charlevoix, which in its spirit might apply, even in these later 
times, to the unselfish and zealous soul of our deceased president. 
" He had sacrificed noble talents through which he might 
" have attained high honors in his profession, and looking for- 
" ward only to tlie martyr fate of many of his brethren who had 
*' bedewed Canada with their blood, he had, against the wishes 
" and larger designs of his superiors, obtained this mission, 
" whose obscurity thus placed him far without the circle of 
" ambition's strife, and could present to him naught but the 
" hardships of the Cross. * * * * He often declared to 
" me, that he adored these manifest designs of Providence, per- 
" suaded as he was, that the honors and success he might have 



- 15 - 

"attained upon a more brilliant arena would. have resulted in 
" the loss of his soul ; and that this thought was his unfailing 
" consolation amid the sterile results of his long and toilsome 
" apostolate." 

Not meagre nor stei-ile, however, were the results that flowed 
from the living labors which through forty years of apostolic faith 
and zeal Dr. Hawley gave to the work of his ministry and to 
doing good for his fellow men. We willingly pay our tribute to 
the noble qualities of his mind, but above all these and ruling 
them with imperial force, was the will of a tender and sympa- 
thetic nature. Endowed with such a mind and heart and will, 
what great and good things became possible to him, and with 
what fidelity did he make thorough use of them all ! Out of all 
our sorrow over this loss, we yet lift up our thanks that his 
active life has been fruitful in all he most loved to have accom- 
plished ; while it has also been full of blessings toward all who 
knew him. 

REMARKS OF PROF. WILLIS J. BEECHER, D. D. 

D. M. Dunning^ Cor. Secy: 

Dear Sir : — My remarks at the memorial meeting were very 
brief, as my tribute to the memory of Dr. Hawley had already 
been paid, so far as the meeting was concerned, in another form. 

It had been remarked by one of the speakers, that Dr. Haw- 
ley was a man without enemies. Calling attention to that, I 
said that his being so did not arise from his being mainly a man 
of negative qualities, since he was not such a man. He had 
positive convictions and was not afraid to utter them. When 
he felt that the call of duty lay in that direction, he did not 
shrink from uttering his convictions, even when he was sure 
thus to give offence. In the times of the original "Maine 
Law " temperance movement, and also throughout our national 
struggle against secession, he was often placed in a position 



- 16- 

when he was compelled to be outspoken in matters in which 
his opinions antagonized those of many of his parishioners 
and friends. In such cases, no one was left in doubt as to 
where he stood. There were occasions when it cost him some- 
thing to be thus outspoken. At one time, before he came to 
Auburn, many of his friends who belonged to two of the three 
political parties which participated in a hotly contested election, 
took serious oifence at his course in regard to the issues involved. 
Some whom he highly esteemed, v/ent so far that they avoided 
him on the street. It was to him a source of great gratification, 
that in time, he won them all back. His being without enemies 
arose not from any lack of positiveness of character, but from 
the fact that men were not willing to remain estranged from 
one whom they regarded as so manly and so loving. 

REMARKS OF REV. WM. H. ALLBRIGHT. 

Mr. President: 

There are times when silence is more eloquent than speech. 
In this presence, and on this subject, one might well be silent. 
There is enough to be said, but personally I do not feel like 
speaking. A feeling of depression has rested upon me ever 
since the intelligence of Dr. Hawley's death. 

My acquaintance with him covers a period of a little more 
than one-third of his ministry in this city. It has been, from 
the first, quite intimate an(i cordial, first as a student in the 
Seminary, and a worshipper in his congregation, and later, as 
co-pastor and fellow presbyter. 

It has been my privilege to enjoy, repeatedly, the hospitalities 
of his home, to meet him socially, to be entertained with him 
at our ecclesiastical gatherings, and to enjoy, with few, his 
genial presence in the meetings of this society. In every rela- 
tion, I have found him to be a genial companion, a faithful 
friend, a wise counselor, and a Christian gentleman. 



- 17 - 

Without attempting any anal)'sis of his character, I mention 
three things which have impressed me in oar intercourse with 
one another. First, his modesty. No one could fail to be im- 
pressed by it. It was innate and genuine. There was nothing 
ostentatious or presuming in his make-up. He was retiring, 
sometimes, to a fault. He put others forward, when he himself 
could have done so much better. We young ministers feel 
this. He never treated us as inexperienced young men, but 
honored us with his confidence as though we were his equals. 
Not even the suggestion of his superiority ever came to us 
from anything on his part For this we loved him, and shall 
ever venerate his memory. 

Second, he was unselfish. His hand, like his heart, was open 
to all. His was a great, generous nature, which took in men of 
every condition, creed and color. Nobody can ever charge him 
with littleness, or self-seeking. 

Third, he was genial. With all the responsibilities and duties 
incident to a large parish and a long pastorate, he was cheerful 
and serene. No one will think of him as a dyspeptic and a 
grumbler. He had an ear for every form of trouble, and a kind 
word for every one seeking advice or help. No one came to 
him for counsel who did not leave richer and happier. Such 
was the man who has gone. This society will feel deeply his 
loss. The community feels it and so does the church. There 
is no one left to fill his place. 

REMARKS OF JOHN W. O'BRIEN, ESQ. 
Mr. President: 

I cannot speak, like all who have preceded me, as an intimate 
friend of Dr. Hawley. My acquaintance with him was slight, 
a casual introduction being the measure of my personal inter- 
course with him. I knew him as an outsider, one not within 
the circle of his immediate influence, and as such I may speak 



-18- 

of him. Born and reared as I was in this city, Dr. Hawley 
has always been to me a part of its history. His name was as 
famihar as that of Governor Seward, or Dr. Condit, or George 
Rathbun, or any of the eminent citizens whose names were 
household words. He was universally recognized as a man of 
high character, broad sympathies and rich culture. His exam- 
ple is a stimulus. His life was a helpful one to every one with 
whom he came in contact, and the memory of it serves to all 
who knew him as an incitement to a higher activity. All 
denominations and men of every walk of life unite in his praise, 
and the sorrow for his death is as general. If this society can 
do anything toward perpetuating the memory of a man of great 
ability, who reared for himself no enduring monument by 
political services or literary effort, it will justify its existence. 

REMARKS OF WM. G, WISE. 

Mr. President: 

So much has been said here this evening, and so truly said, 
that I feel — For me, at least, silence is the best tribute that T can 
pay to the memory of Dr. Hawley. 

It was my good fortune to be intimately associated with him 
in different ways, outside of his church, and I long ago learned 
to love and admire him. 

As my friend Mr. Snow has remarked, I cannot realize that 
he is dead, that I shall never again, in this world, receive the 
cordial grasp of his hand, see his genial face, or hear his digni- 
fied and eloquent utterances in this place, on themes in which 
he was so deeply interested. 

All that has been said of him this evening may be condensed 
in one sentence — " None knew him but to love him, none 
named him but to praise." 



19 - 



LETTER OF THEODORE DIMON, M. D. 

As a clergyman, he brought personal harmony among his 
brethren, and cessation of religious jealousy and theological 
controversy in our city where they had been rife before he 
came among us. He has been known, esteemed, and regarded 
for his wise counsels among his professional brethren through- 
out the state and country. 

As a citizen, he has been active in originating and sustaining 
our Historical society ; in keeping here and endowing the 
Theological Seminary, our only institution of learning, in 
upholding powerfully the maintenance of the struggle for the 
preservation of the Union, in pointing out and supporting sani- 
tary improvement in our city. A sermon he preached on the 
Sanitary Sunday he caused to be set apart for the purpose, not 
only awakened and enlightened our own citizens on this subject 
of their welfare but has been called for and distributed all over 
the United States, He has always been active in any thing 
which has been for the welfare of our people. He has been 
our most distinguished citizen since the death of Governor 
Seward. We have no other citizen, so known and esteemed 
both in and out of our own locality in his profession. 

We have no citizen distinguished in law or medicine to rival 
his reputation. We have no statesman or politician, no man of 
science, no artist, no literary man, no philanthropist to do so. 
By his writings, as a historian of the Jesuit missions to the Six 
Indian Nations in Central New York, before the country was 
settled by whites, he has made himself known and honored in 
this country and abroad. 

These things, in addition to the affection and esteem that his 
personal qualities as a pastor, neighbor, and friend, have excited 
among us and endeared him to us, ought not to be forgotten in 
the sorrow we feel from these causes on account of his death. 
While genial and ardent, he was also prudent, wise and strong. 



-20- 



LETTER OF HON. W. H. BOGART. 



Too late to present to the meeting, Gen. Seward received the 
following appreciative letter from Hon. W. H. Bogart, of 
Aurora : 

Aurora, N. Y., Nov. 28, 1885. 

Dear Mr. Seivard: — I wish I could be present at the meeting 
of the Historical society this evening, that I might express in 
earnest words my sorrow at the death of Dr. Hawley, your late 
presiding officer. I have seen and admired his most intelligent 
action in directing and leading the historical studies of this 
lake country. He came to us at Aurora, in our centennial of 
1879, giving it dignity and lustre by the discourse he pro- 
nounced. I have watched the unfolding of the acts and labors 
of the men who dared the savage and the wilderness, as they 
proclaimed Christianity in peril and before death, as he skill- 
fully portrayed their annals. 

I heard his admirable memorial address over the grave of 
Henry Wells, whose life of action he estimated clearly. I knew 
Dr. Hawley — the scholar — the gentleman — the Christian. Your 
city had no exclusive ownership in him. His citizenship was 
with literature, and in one of its most useful departments, that 
which relates to the heroic and the adventurous. While he 
taught men how to die in the only true bravery, he told us how 
brave men had lived 

I am very respectfully your friend, 

W. H. Bogart. 






MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 



Oiven hefore the Cayuga County Historical Society, in the First 
Presbyterian Church of Auburn, March 9, 1886, by the 
Rev. Willis J. Beecher, D. D. 

THE REV. CHARLES HAWLEY, D. D. 

I do not propose to eulogize Dr. Hawley to night. I shall 
not even attempt a formal analysis of his life and work, and of 
the reasons why his fellow citizens so warmly esteemed him. 
He is an unsually complete and well rounded representative of 
a certain type of America q character. I shall try to present 
him as such, not by description or generalization, but by simply 
stating a few of the more salient facts of his life, in the hope 
that, as I proceed, the facts will draw their own picture of the 
man, and of the type to which he belongs. I am the better 
content to do this because, in doing it, I am following the his- 
torical method he liked so well, and because I am confident 
that simply to tell the truth concerning him will do him more 
honor than would the most glowing eulogy. You will pardon 
me, therefore, if I avoid all approach to the stately manner of 
a memorial oration, and adopt the more familiar style that bet- 
ter suits my purpose. In this Historical Society, we do not 
want to pronounce rounded periods over Dr. Hawley. We 
knew him and know one another too well for that. We want 
rather to review together the facts which constituted him what 

he was. 

Fortunately, the materials for a biographical sketch are 
abundant. For the early part of his life, we have a paper 



-24- 

written by himself in 1869,* and supplemented by a few anno- 
tations of later date. The later years of his life were before 
the public ; the record of them is to be found in the newspapers, 
and in many published documents from himself and others, to 
say nothing of the recollections of him still fresh in the minds 
of us all. 

HIS ANCESTRY. 

In 1390, while Richard 11. was King of England, John 
Hawley, a rich merchant of Devonshire, waged war against 
the navy of the smuggling shippers, capturing thirty four of 
their vessels, laden with fifteen hundred tuns of wine. This 
man's name, Haw-ley. meadow-hedge, or hedge- meadow, seems 
to indicate that his ancestors were Saxon tillers of the soil. He 
was one of the representatives of Devonshire, duriog the great- 
est part of the reigns of Henry IV., Henry V., and Henry VI., 
A. D, 1399-1461, and must therefore have been a man of 
remarkable longevity and vigor. During the reign of Henry 
IV., he received permission to fortify his house at Dartmouth, 
Notices of the fortunes of this man's family, of honors won by 
them, of the ruins of the mansion at Dartmouth, of their inter- 
marriages with the members of the Booth family, and the like, 
are ti^aceable until the year 1629, when the three brothers, 
Joseph, John, and Thomas Hawley, with Richard Booth, mi- 
grated to America, settling at Roxbury, Mass. This was nine 
years after the landing of the Mayflower, and one year before 
the settling of Boston under Winthrop. Ten years later, in 
1639, Joseph Hawley and Richard Booth removed to Stratford, 
Conn., where they bought land, mostly from the Indians, and 
formed a settlement. There the descendants of Joseph Hawley 
multiplied, and in that vicinity many of them have ever since 
resided. 

♦This autobiograpliy is quite full and circumstantial. The preparation of it/ was 
owing to an arrangement between him and some of his associates in the First Church, 
by which each was to commit to writing a sketch of his own life. 



\ 



- 25 - 

Among these, Ezra Hawley, born Sept, 10, 1782, in Bridge- 
port, Conn., married the daughter of the Rev. John Noyes, of 
Norfield, Conn, John Noyes traced his descent, on his father's 
side, through seven generations of ministers, and, through his 
mother, to John Alden, one of the signers of the compact in 
the cabin of the Mayflower ; the John Aklen who married 
Priscilla Mullens, and who is the hero of Longfellow's poem, 
" The Courtship of Miles Standish." John JSToyes himself la- 
bored for sixty four years in the ministry. 

Our friend Charles Hawley, the son of Ezra Hawley, was 
born Aug, 19, 1819. The facts we have just been considering 
show that he was, by descent and inherited character, a Puritan 
of the Puritans. His ancestors, both through his father and 
his mother, came over either in the Mayflower, or in one of the 
vessels that earliest followed the Mayflower. He came of strains 
of English Puritan blood, the blending of which can be traced 
as far back as we can trace English Puritan blood. His family 
participated in the founding of New England society ; and the 
branch of it to which he belonged early established his ancestral 
home in that part of Connecticut where, if anywhere, the blue- 
laws were the bluest and most rigidly enforced. 

HIS CHILDHOOD. 

The home training and the other surroundings of the early 
life of our friend were such as the facts of his ancestry would 
lead us to expect. He was born in Catskill, N. Y. His father 
had removed thither to engage in trade. At the time of his 
removal, the Erie canal was not yet in existence, and Catskill 
was the present and prospective centre of an immense trade 
between New York city and the inland regions, much of which 
afterward followed the line of the canal, and went through Al- 
bany. Our own lake region of central New York was then a 
portion of the tract of country whose trade went to New York 
city largely by way of Catskill. At an early date, Ezra Hawley, 



-26 - 

with other enterprising New England men, men bearing such 
names as Cooke, and Hale, and Day, and Elliott, had the sagacity 
to see that trade must needs grow with the settling up of the 
o-reat west (that is to say, the region now known as central and 
western New York), and moved into the staid old Dutch town, 
to take advantage of its prospective growth. For some years 
they made the town brisk and busy. Ezra Hawley occupied a 
block of buildings, in the different stories of which he carried 
on both a wholesale and retail trade in dry goods, groceries, 
provisions, produce of all sorts, liquors, and other goods. He 
was also a director in the village bank, an active man in all 
local enterprises and pablic affairs, and an elder in the Presby- 
terian church. This last statement is significant, in view of the 
fact that Mr. Hawley and his New England friends in Catskill 
had probably been members of the Congregational churches in 
their New England homes. These men and their fathers had 
readily made provision, while they belonged to the established 
church, in Connecticut and other New England states, for per- 
mitting those who wished a different form of worship to organize 
separate churches ; but they themselves, as they moved west- 
ward, joined the Presbyterian or the Dutch churches, rather 
than multiply denominations in the communities where they 
came. The religious doctrines held in these bodies were those 
to which the New England men were accustomed ; but they 
often brought along with them a broader intellectual life, and 
a more earnest spuntuaHty. 

In the circumstances, we should expect to find that the sur- 
roundings of Charles Hawley's childhood were as thoroughly 
Puritan as was his descent ; and the expectation is confirmed 
by the facts in the case. The home at Catskill was a typi- 
cal Puritan home, a representative home of its class. It is 
worth while, therefore, to inquire what sort of a home it was. 
A great deal is said nowadays, about the sternness and rigid- 
ness of the Puritanism of the last generation and of previous 



- 27 - 

generations ; about its harshness, its bareness of beauty, its 
lack of mirth and joy, its forbiddance of the ordinary pleasures 
of life, its repression of spontaneity on the part of children, its 
cruelty in the matter of tlie parental use of the rod, and above 
all, its dismal and gloomy Sabbath observance. If a person is 
irreligious or dissolute, many seem to regard it a sufficient 
explanation of this to say that it is by revulsion from the 
strictness of his Puritanical training. The notion seems to be 
prevalent that the Puritans lived in plain homes, and wor- 
shiped in plain churches, not because they had learned to be 
content with the limited means which Providence had placed 
at their disposal, but by reason of their hardness of taste, and 
their perverse dislike of the beautiful. The latest information 
of this sort which has reached us, is that the Puritans were too 
stiff and ungenial to drink wines and liquors together moder- 
ately, like good fellows, and therefore formed, instead, such 
habits of hard drinking as made the total abstinence reforma- 
tion a matter of absolute necessity to them. 

Eepresentations of this sort, if they are true, promise pretty 
hard lines for our friend Charles Hawley, during his boyhood, 
in his typical Puritan home. If they are true, then I have evi- 
dently reached a painful part of my subject. I shall not dis- 
cuss the question whether they are true ; I shall simply give 
two or three pen-pictures, containing Dr. Hawley 's testimony 
in the matter. He was there, and had opportunities for know- 
ing. He was an honest man, of good memory and judgment, 
and therefore qualified to state what he knew. I make but two 
or three brief extracts from his autobiography; it would be 
easy to make a dozen of like character. In contrast with the 
grim, straight-laced Puritan house-father of the present style 
of literature, see what our friend says of his own Puritan 
father : 

" He had a great flow of spirits, enjoyed humor, and was a 
good laugher. He loved young company, and his presence 



- 28 - 

was never a bar, but rather a spur to all healthful and innocent 
enjoyment. He was an indulgent father, and yet we children 
knew, I can hardly tell how, there was a line which must not 
be crossed. He was moreover a generous host, and took a 
hearty pleasure in entertaining his friends at his table, which 
in the earlier times, when as yet the temperance lecturer was 
not abroad, did not lack the accompaniment of the choicest old 
Coo-nac and the " nutty " Madeira. I can now see my father, 
on such occasions, with the very glow of hospitality in his 
whole manner, making every one around him happy, and draw- 
ing his pleasure not so much from the feast, as from the enjoy- 
ment manifested by those whom he would serve. Those were 
strange old days. Free as liquor was on the sideboard, on the 
dinner table. ^ * * I never saw either host or guest or 
any one within the dear old home, who could be suspected of 
having lost his wit or reason, much less of being intoxicated." 

Evidently, the set of people whom little Charles Hawley saw 
at his father's home were mirth-loving, jovial, convivial, and 
temperate. If their Puritanism had a sour-visaged aspect, it 
must have turned in some different direction from that in 
which we have looked at it. May it possibly be that they were 
opinionated men, ready to crucify some temperance reformer, 
if he had come among them, because his doctrines contradicted 
theirs ? The answer is ready. The temperance reformer came 
to Catskill. Elder Hawley, trafficker in ardent spirits that he 
was, received him to the hospitality of his home, listened to 
his arguments, and banished intoxicating beverages from his 
table and from his business. A similar course was pursued, 
in those days, by men of like antecedents with Ezra Hawley, 
in hundreds of American villages. 

On the whole, things look more and more unpromising for 
the little boy. Since the Puritanical sternness found no vent 
in these more public directions, we are prepared to find it con- 
centrated in the bringing up of the family. With some shrink- 
ing for fear of the possible answers we may receive, we are led 
to inquire whether the rod was faithfully used, whether the boy 



- 29 - 

was regularly talked with twice a week in regard to his lost 
Condition, and his wickedness in not being elected out of it, 
whether his life was made wretched by the disagreeable means 
used to render him properly moral and religious, and especially 
whether he got a double dose of all this on Sundays, begin- 
ning at sunset of Saturday. We need not have been anxious 
over our question. Dr. Hawley's prompt reply to it is found 
in the following excerpts : 

" My boyhood is filled with sunny memories. The restraints 
of home were those of love ; and I have now no recollection 
of anything in the way of force, in all my home discipline. 
Doubtless I tried the patience and indulgence of my parents in 
many ways, but I am not conscious of anj'thing like willful 
disobedience to their known wishes. These had the power of 
a positive command. Our Sabbath began with Saturday eve- 
ning, and was as strictly observed as at any New England 
home. But such was the impression made upon me by the 
mingled piety and gentleness of my father and mother, that I 
have none of the repulsive memories of which some speak, in 
recalling the rigidness of the old Puritan discipline." 

And again : 

"The whole family economy was pervaded with the spirit of 
religion, and at the same time it was never a restraint upon 
that cheerful enjoj^ment, and that large indulgence of innocent 
pleasures which made our home so attractive to us, and now 
serve to invest it with such happy memories. The Sabbath 
began with us, after the manner of the New England observ- 
ance, at sundown, Saturday. The store was closed ; all of us 
were expected to be at home ; no visitors were allowed to 
divert preparation for the Sabbath. We went with father and 
mother to the prayer-rneeling, which they never failed to attend, 
or remained quietly at home. The day was kept holy ; no sub- 
ject of week-day concern was ever introduced ; no book, except 
of decided religious character, or the bible, was suffered to be 
read. We never thought of staying from church, whatever 
the weather, and the whole discipline was so a matter of course, 
that we never thought of questioning its propriety, or complain- 
ing of its rigidness. It was the same with morning and even- 



- 30 - 

ing family pra3^ers ; they were not in any sense things of com- 
pulsion, but a part of the family arrangement, like our daily 
meals. In short, religion was the law of the house, and we 
would as soon have thought of complaining that we had a home, 
as that it was a religious home. From my earliest recollection 
it was never otherwise. And yet T do not now remember that 
my father ever talked with me directly or personally on the 
subject of religion. There was no occasion that he should, to 
convince me of the necessity of religion, or of his desire that I 
should be a Christian. I never had any other idea." 

The home at Catskill was not the only Puritan home with 
which the child Charles Hawley was familiar. Once a year, 
usually, he was taken to visit his relatives in Connecticut, 
dividing four weeks between his father's friends in or near 
Bridgeport, and his mother's friends at Norfiekl. Of these vis- 
its he says : 

" Those were halcyon days, among uncles, aunts, and cous- 
ins, eight or ten to a family, the old folks grave in habit, quaint 
in their ways, but kind and gentle, always glad to see their 
friends, never weary of their stay, and administering their gen- 
erous hospitality in an easy, every day style, which made you, 
for the time being, one of the family." 

No doubt some of the homes of our Puritan forefathers were 
pretty disagreeable places for the little children who had to stay 
in them ; but so are a great many homes where they do not 
keep the Sabbath or have family prayers. That the ordinary 
Puritan home was not of this sort, but was, with all its strictness, 
a sweet, glad, happy place for boys and girls to grow up in, a 
place where they were trained to a genuine appreciation of 
beauty and refinement and geniality, as well as to knowledge 
and virtue and religion, might be proved, not by the recollections 
of Charles Hawley alone, but also by those of very many middle 
aged and elderly people now living in nearly every American 
community. 

One of the results of this home training, in the case of Dr. 
Hawley, was the peculiarly tender and affectionate relations 



- 31 - 

which always existed between him and his parents. I resist 
the temptation to quote his language concerning this. Ilis 
father died in 1855, after which his mother resided with him 
until her death, in Auburn, in 1877. 

HLS CONVERSION. 

Concerning the boyhood of our friend, I add one more passage 
from his own pen, a passage which gives a glimpse, first of his 
school life, and then of his religious experience, as a boy of 
twelve years of age. After naming, with expressions of appre- 
ciation, several of the teachers whose instructions he enjoyed, 
he mentions one — the only severe one among them — of whom 
he says : 

''The unlucky boy that was caught in a whisper was imme- 
diately arraigned at the desk, and told to hold our, his hand, 
which the teacher grasped firmly around the fingers, bending 
up the palm for some half a dozen rapid blows with his hard 
maple ruler some two inches wide and half an inch thick. I 
think I should know that old ruler by sight anywhere to this 
day ; certainly I have the most vivid recollections of its peculiar 
qualities ; the sting it left so many times on tlie hand with 
which I write this seems even now to tingle along each nerve 
of the burning palm. This teacher had red hair, and I remem- 
ber him as rather qu ck tempered, and in my simplicity I was 
wont to regard all men of red hair with peculiar aversion. A 
change came over him, however, and the whole discipline of the 
school, in the great revival of 1831 ; and one morning, as the 
school assembled, he told us in simple and tender words his new 
experience as a Christian, and then, for the first time, opened 
the school with prayer, after reading a scripture lesson. He 
read the tenth chapter of Romans, and commented in the light 
of his own fresh experience on the verses: 'Say rot in thine 
'heait, Whovshall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down 
&c.' I was tlien scarcely twelve years of age, and came to 
school that morning greatly troubled about my sins, and ear- 
nestly desiring to know what it was to believe in Christ. A 
clear light came in upon my mind at that part of the passage 
which says : ' The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in 



- 32 - 

thy heart, &c.' It was a happy day for master and pupils, and 
one which stands out singularly prominent in my memory. 
Shortly after, I united with the church, under the venerable 
Dr. D;ivid Porter, — when he was permitted to gather the har- 
vest of his own sowing, in the accession of a hundred or more 
to the communion of the church on a single communion Sab- 
bath." 

This was what might have been expected as the outcome of 
the religious home training, and a happy result of that training 
it was. It was a sudden conversion, indeed ; and there are many 
who are suspicious in regard to sudden conversions. But such 
a sudden conversion as that of the boy Charles Hawley, a con- 
version which consists in the clear recognition of personal re- 
sponsibility, and therefore of personal sinfulness and need, and 
in view of this of the intelligent, conscious, clear acceptar-ce, 
once for all, of Christ as Saviour and Master, is a spiritual ex- 
perience which every thoughtful person must respect, and must 
count as of the highest value ; and which every religious person 
is compelled to recognize as a genuine work of the H0I3' Ghost. 
Not less genuine was the spiritual change, sudden though it 
were, which led to the substituting of the law of love for the 
thick maple ruler, in the discipline of Charles Hawley's auburn- 
haired schoolmaster. 

HIS EDUCATION. 

It seemed to me desirable to treat somewhat in full of these 
early surroundings, in the midst of which the character of our 
friend was formed, even at the cost of being obliged to dismiss 
with a few cursory sentences, all that portion of his life which 
passed between his childhood and his settlement in Auburn. 
His boyhood was divided between study, work, and the usual 
outdoor sports. In hunting, fishing, swimming, skating, and 
the like, he experienced at least his full share of adventures, 
and of hairbreadth escapes. He entered Williams college in 
1836, graduating in 1840. He was president of the Social 
Fraternity, received the valedictory in his class, and was elected 



- 83 - 

to the Phi Beta Kappa society after graduation. During a time 
of especial religious interest in the college, shortly before he 
completed the course, his own religious life was decide(ily 
renewed. This had something to do with the fact, that a few 
months later, he gave up his intention of studying for the law, 
and entered the Union Theological Seminary, in New York 
city. 

I am the less reluctant to pass thus hastily over his college 
and seminary exjieriences, since, at the approaching anniver- 
saries of the Union seminary and of Williams college, to be 
held in May and June next, papers commemorative of him will 
be I'ead. 

HIS WOKK AT NEW KOOHELLE AND AT LVOXS. 

He graduated from the seminary in June, 1844. For three 
months he supplied the American church in Montreal, Canada, 
whose pastor, the Eev. Caleb Strong, v^as then traveling in 
Europe. Immediately upon the expiration of this engagement 
he became pastor of the Presbyterian church in New Rochelle, 
N. y., near his home in Catskill, where he remained four years. 
During his pastorate, the church grew in membership and in 
financial strength. At the time of his leaving, plans for erecting 
a new church edifice were being laid. Some years later, these 
plans were successfully carried out Dr. Hawley always remem- 
bered with great pleasure his pastorate in New Rochelle. The 
historical and social atmosphere of this delightfully situated 
old Huguenot town was congenial to him, and made a lasting 
impression. 

In 1848, Mr. Hawley removed from New Rochelle to Lyons, 
N. Y., where he had a pleasant and successful pastorate of ten 
years. The church, previously divided, became united and 
strong. A new church edifice was built. The community was 
blessed with revivals of religion. It is no wonder the people 
were reluctant to part with their pastor, when, twenty-eight 



- 84 - 

years ago, he was called to the First Presbyterian church in 
Auburn. 

On the tenth of September of 1850, Mr. Hawley was married 
to Miss Mary Hubbell, of Lyons. A happier or more beauti- 
ful married life has seldom fallen to the lot of man. 

The years of Mr. Hawley's residence in Lyons, and the few 
years that followed, were years of excitement in public affairs, 
far beyond anything that has occurred in the last two decades. 
The great questions connected with Ameacan slavery were 
forcing themselves more and more prominently upon public 
attention ; and during the years from 1852 to 1S55, the ques- 
tion of prohibitory law, in most of the northern states, became 
so prominent that, for a time, it pressed even national issues 
into the background. Mr. Hawley, while avoiding all needless 
controversy, was outspoken in his utterances on public ques- 
tions. In the campaign in which Myron Clark, prohibitionist, 
was elected governor over Horatio Seymour, democrat, and 
Millard Fillmore, know-nothing, Mr, Hawley preached two 
sermons on the "Maine Law," which caused, for the time, a 
great sensation in the community. Then and afterward he was 
equally unambiguous in regard to the " Higher Law " doctrine, 
in the conflict over slavery. Of necessity, he sometimes gave 
offense, in dealing with these affairs. It is not a little to the 
credit of his manliness and his wisdom, that the alienations 
thus caused were seldom permanent. 

The circumstances which led Mr. Hawley to accept the call 
to Auburn were in a marked degree providential. He had 
previously refused overtures from many places, including 
Geneva, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, and St. Paul. In some of 
these previous instances, his decision to remain in Lyons had 
been determined by his love for the people there, and his wish 
to remain with them, together with their judgment and that of 
the Presbytery that he ought to remain, rather than by his own 
judgment as to what was best. It was by these circumstances 



- 35 - 

that he was held there till the call from Auburn reached him. 

HIS PASTORATE IN AUBURN. 
Dr. Hawley's principal work in Auburn was that which he 
did as pastor of the First Presbyterian church. The last sermon 
that he preached bef >re his death was tlie anniversary sermon 
that marked the beginning of the twenty ninth year of his pas- 
torate. Probably he had never been stronger in the united love 
of his people, or in his influence over them, than on that day. 
As a preacher, he fed the people. I suppose that two classes 
of his sermons are remembered with esjiecial interest by those 
who were accustomed to listen to him. Those of one class were 
sermons which more or less touched upon public affairs, either 
in the way of direct treatment, or for illustration of other themes. 
Several of these discourses were published.* They showed 

*It would not be easy to make a complete list of Dr. Hawlej-"s published works. I 
have learned of the following : 

1. Address introducing Mr. Seward, 18(i5, published, with Mr. Seward's address on 
the same occasion, in a pamphlet, and i-epublished in Mr. Seward's works. 

2. Ilistory of the First Presbyterian Church in Auburn, 1869. 

3. Memorial Address for the Hon. William H. Seward, 18T3. 

4. In Memoriam, James S. Seymour, 1875. 

5. Jesuit Missions Among the Cayugas, 1876. 

6. Memorial Address for the Hon. Henry Wells, 1879. 

7. Biographical sketch of Col. John L. Hardenbergh. the first settler of Auburn, 
1879. This was published in the first volume of the Collections of the Cayuga Co. His- 
torical Society, introducing Col. Hardenbergh's Journal, with General John S. Clark's 
notes thereon. 

8. Early Chapters of Cayxuja, History, 1879. This is No. 5, with extensive correc- 
tions, notes, and additions, especially a map and notes by Gen. John S. Clark. 

9. Public Health and Sanitary Reform, 1880. 

10. Centennial Address at Aurora, N. Y., 1880. 

11. Ecclesiastical and Civil Relations of a local Presbyterian Church, 1881, as chair- 
man of a committee of Cayuga Presbytery. 

12. Anniversary Sermons, many of these published in the local papers ; the sermon 
for the year 1883 was published in a thick pamphlet, with other matters, connected 
with the celebration of the completion of the twenty-fifth year of his jjastorate. 

13. Annual Addresses before the Historical Society, especially those on Iroquois 
antiquities, beginning with 1881. Those for 1881 and 1882are in the Collections No. Two 
of the Cayuga County Historical Society, and were likewise bound as a separate pam- 
phlet. 

14. Early Chapters of Seneca History, with annotations, including a map and notes 
by Gen. Clark, forming the body of Collections Nn. Three, 1886. 

15. Early Chapters of Mohaivk History, published in the Auburn Advertiser in 1885 
(the previous works of this kind were also originally published in this paper). It has 
since been annotated, and is substantially ready for publication in more permanent 
form. 



- 36 - 

breadth of thought, and practical familiarity with affairs, such 
that some of his friends sometimes thought that he should have 
been a state.-^man rather than a preacher. The sermons of the 
other class were simple, plain presentations of the common doc- 
trines of the gospel, always in excellent literary form, but with 
little else to distinguish them. They were utterances of com- 
mon truths, never commonplace, and yet as far as possible from 
being pretentious. He had a voice of marked sweetness and 
power, and an unaffected earnestness of manner, that will long 
be pleasantly remembered by those who love him. 

In his pastoral work, he displayed a thorough business-like 
understanding of what needed to be done, and was punctual 
and faithful in doing it. It was a gift that must often have 
served him in good stead, that he knew how to listen, as well 
as how to speak. He made very little fuss and display in the 
doing of a great deal of work. He was wise enough to avoid 
acting prematurely. He could wait till the time came, even at 
the cost of being thought slow ; and when the time came, he 
was usually ready. He was sympathetic without being demon- 
strative, and helpful without being officious.* 

During his pastorate, the church was blessed with several 
seasons of revival, and with large accessions to its member- 
ship ; but the keeping up of its own membership is only a 
very small part of the work done by such a church, and is 
therefore only a partial indication of the success of its pastor. 
Some of his work outside the church we shall presently con- 
sider. On March 7, 1869, the First Church worshiped for the 
last time in its old edifice, which it had occupied for fifty-two 
years, and which was then pulled down and re-erected as the 
Seymour Chapel, now Calvary Church, in the growing eastern 
part of Auburn, while on its old site was erected the present 

*An appreciative characterization of Dr. Hawley's methods as a preacher and pastor, 
from the pen of his fellow pastor, the Rev. S. W. Boardman, D. D., for many years 
in charge of the Auburn Second Church, was published in the New York Evangelist 
of Dec. 10, 1885, 



handsome stone edifice of the church. On that occasion, Dr. 
Hawlej preached a historical discourse, which was afterwards 
published with notes and additions. In 1882, a celebration 
was made of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate, an 
account of which, including his anniversary sermon for that 
year, was published, in a pamphlet of eighty-two pages. From 
these pamphlets and from other sources, it would be possible 
for any one who wishes, to learn very fully of Dr. Hawlcy's 
work, and of the estimation in which he was held. 

DR. HAW LEY AS A PRESBYTERIAN. 

Dr. Hawley's influence in the Presbyterian Church was not 
confined to Auburn. In the church at large he was known for 
his thorough fidelity to Presbyterian doctrine and polity. For 
nearly twenty-five 3''ears, he was stated clerk of the Presbytery 
of Cayuga; discharging his duties with the most punctilious 
exactness. His books, always neatly written, and always at 
the meeting of synod, never failed to be fully approved. He 
was a member of the general assembly at which the revised 
book of discipline was sent down to the churches, was on the 
committee which had charge of that matter, and rendered ser- 
vices whose value was widely recognized. He loj'ally sub- 
mitted to the decisions of the church judicatories, in the few 
instances in which they were contrary to his judgment. An 
instance of this is the adoption by the First Presbyterian church 
of its present custom of re-installing elders and deacons. 
Since 1876, Dr. Hawley has been one of the trustees of the 
Auburn Theological Seminary, and has been especially useful 
and prominent in that board. His prominence in these and 
other matters connected with Presbyterianism in America has 
not remained without recognition. In 1861, Hamilton College 
conferred upon him the decree of Doctor of Divinity, and he 



- 38 - 

has constantly been the recipient o£ expressions of the confi- 
dence felt in him by his brethren.* 

HIS INTEREST IN AUBURN INSTITUTIONS. 

The public institutions of Auburn will miss him greatly. 
His relations to the Seminary we have just considered ; those to 
the Historical Society are reserved for future consideration. 
But he was also one of the corporate members of the Seymour 
Librar}^ Association, founded by his friend, James S. Seymour, 
and its vice-president from the beginning of its existence, 
With tlie work of the Young Men's Christian Association, 
with that of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, with 
that of each of the beneficent charities of our city, he was in 
hearty and helpful sympathy. As Auburn has grown, since 
his coming among us, his presence and influence have been an 
element more or less afl:ecting for good all the growth of the 
city. 

THE CITIZEN PASTOR. 

If the times were stirring while Dr. Hawley was at Lyons, 
they became yet more so after he moved to Auburn. In 1856, 
the republican party made its first national campaign, with Fre- 
mont for leader. That was the year before Dr. Hawley came 
among us. Three years after his coming, in 1860, Abraham 
Lincoln was elected president. Dr. Hawley, like every other 



*In a letter published iu the Evangeliat of Jan. 21,^1886, the Rev. Henry Kendall, D. D., 
speaking of Dr. Brown, formerly president of Hamilton College, who died Nov. 4, 1885, 
relates the following interesting incident : 

" He called on me, and as there was to be a meeting of the trustees at Hamilton Col- 
lege within a few daj's, we agreed that we ought to have a trustee from Auburn to fill 
the place of Dr. Gridley of W'aterloo, just deceased, and that we would support Dr. 
Charles Hawley for the place. Finding soon after that I could not be at that meeting, 
I wi'Ote out my estimate of Dr. Hawley, and sent it to Dr. Brown, to use in the board if 
need be, and the letter i-eached his home a few hours after his death. The board did 
not elect a trustee at that meeting, and in less than two weeks after the meeting of the 
board, Dr. Hawley himself had also died. Thus the names of these three men, Drs. 
Brown, Gridley, and Hawley, will hereafter be linked together in my memory." 



- 39 - 

American citizen who had convictions and was governed by 
them, took an interested part in these movements. Pohtics 
had become, for the time being, no longer a matter of contest 
between political parties, but a struggle between moral right 
and moral wrong. The spiritual teachers of men could not be 
indifferent, or hold their peace, while such battles were raging. 
As a general thing, they made their influence felt, boldly and 
effectively ; and no minister of the gospel was bolder or more 
effective, or at the same time wiser than Dr. Hawley. In 1861 
the civil war broke out; Lincoln was inaugurated; William 
H. Seward was made secretary of state. The first regiment of 
volunteers recruited in this vicinity, afterward known as the 
" old nineteenth," attended service in the First Presbyterian 
Church, the Sabbath before leaving for the field, and were 
addressed by the Pastor from the words : " Be of good cour- 
age, and let us play the men for our people and the cities of 
our God," 2 Sam. x. 12. In the various regiments afterward 
raised, the congregation of the First Church was well repre- 
sented, often by its active church members, and its most prom- 
ising young men. Not long after the opening of the war, Dr. 
Hawleyjjreached a course of sermons on the duties of citizens, 
and especially the duty of obedience to law. These sermons 
are not yet forgotten. To myself they have an especial inter- 
est, as my acquaintance with Dr. Hawley began at about this 
time, and these were, with a single exception, the first sermons 
of his to which I listened. 

Dr. Hawley's interest in public affairs was not diminished 
by the warm personal friendship which existed between him 
and Secretary Seward. When Mr. Seward made his visits home 
from Washington, Dr. Hawley was one of the first friends with 
whom he met and talked. Frequent visits were exchanged ; 
the whole political and military situation was earnestly dis- 
cussed ; Dr. Hawley's position, the interests which he repre- 
sented in the community, and his readiness to take pains that 



- 40 - 

he might be of service, rendered hira, in Mr. Seward's opinion, 
a valuable counselor. Mr. Seward thought of him as being 
not only the pastor of the oldest church in Auburn, and a lead- 
ing clergyman, but as a public-spirited citizen, in whose judg- 
ment and sagacity his fellow townsmen had confidence, and 
who was able to do much to mould public opinion, and shape 
and direct public action. 

In 1864, Mr. Seward came to Auburn to cast his vote for 
the re-election of Abraham Lincoln as president. On the 
evening of November 7, he addressed an audience in Auburn 
on the issues of the election. This address is nov\r to be found 
in the fifth volume of Mr. George E. Baker's edition of Sew- 
ard's works, page 505. On the afternoon of the following day, 
having cast his vote, he started on his return to Washington, 
taking with him as guests, Dr. Hawley and Messrs. James S. 
Seymour and Eichard Steel. An account of this visit, in Dr. 
Hawley's handwriting, is still in existence, and should be 
printed.* Mr. Seward went with them to the office of President 
Lincoln, who treated them with the most informal cordiality, 
and told them a story ; under guidance provided by Mr. Sew- 
ard, they inspected the interior of several of the departments 
at Washington ; they crossed the lines of the Potomac, taking 
the prescribed oath of allegiance ; they enjoyed the delightful 
hospitality of the secretary's Washington home, and on Satur- 
day started on their return Auburnward. 

Eleven and a half months later, the citizens of Auburn paid 
Mr. Seward a visit at his residence in this city, and very nat- 
urally selected Dr. Hawley as their spokesman on that occasion. 
His address and that of Mr. Seward in reply were published in 
pamphlet form, and also appear in the volume of Mr. Seward's 
works already cited, on page 515. The intervening months 
had been eventful. On the 31st of January, 1865, the national 
house of representatives had passed the bill for submitting to 

*Eead before the Hist. Soc, Jan., 1887. 



- 41 - 

the states the thirteenth amendment of the constitution, thus 
making it certain that the freeing of the slaves, already accom- 
plished by President Lincoln's proclamation, was to remain a 
permanent and inviolable fact. Sixty seven days later, the 
army of Lee surrendered to General Grant, and the war of the 
rebellion was over. Yet six days later, assassins took the life 
of Abraham Lincoln, and attempted that of Mr. Seward, who 
escaped only by a hair-breadth, with wounds whose scars he 
carried to the grave. 

Mr. Seward had been spending some time at home, for recov- 
ery and rest. He was now about to return to Washington. 
He was to face the problem of the rehabilitation of the seceded 
states ; a problem in many respects, graver than any which had 
preceded it; a problem whose difficulties were enhanced by the 
fact that the president with whom he had to deal, was no longer 
Abraham Lincoln, but Andrew Johnson ; and by the fact that 
he must now face the opposition, not only of secessionists and of 
political opponents, but of all the little great men of his own 
party. The words of Dr. Hawley on this occasion, with those 
of Mr. Seward in reply, are marked by a feeling of personal 
tenderness, a breadth of view, and an exaltation of sentiment 
worthy of the men and the time. 

In October, 1867, a treaty was agreed upon at Copenhagen, 
providing for the cession of St. Thomas and other Danish 
West India Islands to the United States. Among its articles 
was one looking to the submission of the question to the popu- 
lar vote of the inhabitants of the islands, both g(^vernments 
deeming it advisable that the transfer, if made, should have 
the sanction of the people most deeply interested. Commis- 
sioners were accordingly appointed to proceed to the islands to 
take the votes. The Danish government appointed Commis- 
sioner Carstensen, and our government Dr. Hawley. In the 
election, the vote stood 1,244 in favor of annexation to the 
United States, and only 28 against annexation. The treaty 



- 42 - 

was ratified in the Danish parliament, but failed of being 
approved in the senate of the United States. Neither Mr. 
Seward, however, nor Dr. Hawlej are to blame that those valu- 
able islands do not now belong to our country. 

A believer in omens might well imagine that the powers of 
nature in those islands resented the proposed transfer of sove- 
reignty. After the election, as the commissioners were preparing 
to start on their return, the islands, especially St. Croix, where 
Dr. Hawley then was, were visited by an earthquake, with a 
hurricane and tidal wave, working fearful destruction of life and 
property. Among other incidents described by Dr. Hawley in 
his letter, the United States ship of war Monongahela was lifted 
from her anchorage about half a mile off shore, and thrown high 
and dry on the beach.* 

In other affairs, public and private. Dr. Hawley was associated 
with Secretary Seward. It was pecaliarly fitting, therefore, 
that, after Mr. Seward's decease, the Young Men's Christian 
Association of Auburn, through a committee consisting of 
principal John E. Myer, Byron C. Smith, and Henry Hall, in- 
vited Dr. Hawley to deliver before the association an address 
commemorative of the life and work of our distinguished towns- 
man. The address was given Feb, 19, 1873, and published en- 
tire in the Auhurn Advertiser of the following day. One of the 
few copies of it still in existence is among the possessions of 
the Historical Society. 

VACATIONS. 

Thus far we have been watching Dr. Hawley in the various 
phases of his work. No one understood better than he that 
play, as well as industry, is essential to the best living. In my 
own recollections of my first winter in Auburn, no picture is 
more vivid than that of Dr. Hawley, Professor Hopkins, James 
R Cox, esq., the Eev. Henry Fowler, and other distinguished 

*See Appendix I. 



- 43 - 

citizens, some of them with their wives, as well as with the 
young men and women of their familes, skating on the big clam, 
with hundreds of tlieir fellow citizens, including, of course, all 
the small boys in Auburn, or skating in more select parties on 
the Owasco lake. That was before there was a rink in Auburn, 
when good ice depended on the weather, and when, conse- 
quently, prime skating on the big dam was understood to have 
the precedence of all other ordinary engagements. 

It was while seeking recreation that Dr. Hawley found some 
of the most important parts of the work of his life. In 1823, 
when he was four years old, his father and his father's friend, 
Mr. Beach, had organized a company for building the now cel- 
ebrated Mountain House, in the Catskills. The Mountain House 
was Charles Hawley 's summer home, from childhood. He was 
associated with all its traditions from the beginning. His inti- 
mate relations with it did not cease when the property was 
purchased by Mr. C. S. Beach, the son of his father's friend, 
Mr. Beach says : 

" When I purchased the property, I told him it might still 
be a summer home for himself and family. I knew him from 
infancy ; to a great extent we were co-travelers and co-workers ; 
a strong brotherly feeling of esteem and love existed between 
us ; I liked to give him pleasure, and he liked to receive pleas- 
ure at my hands." 

Thus came about a condition of things with which we were 
all familiar. In the months of June and July (-f each year, our 
friend Dr. Hawley suffered from hay fever. In the beginning 
of it, it would seem as if he had caught a cold, affecting the 
nasal passages. Then his nose swelled, and his eyes became 
watery. When we met him, he smiled and we smiled, though 
not in, the sense which a stranger might have imagined, from 
the growing redness of his face. These symptoms were to him 
the intimation that the time had come for his summer trip to 
the Catskills. There tlie troublesome symptoms vanished ; he 



-44 - 

rested from the labors of bis usual calling ; he himself became 
to his fellow guests one of the attractions of the place. Among 
other things, it is said of him : 

" Dr. Hawley was a great walker, and found great pleasure 
with congenial companions in rambling over and among the 
mountains, opening new paths and ways to the grand and beau- 
tiful in which the region abounds. His familiarity with the 
topography and points of interest enabled him to give pleasure 
and gratification to others, thus heightening his own."* 

HISTORICAL STUDIES. 

Dr. Hawley looked upon his historical studies, much as he 
looked upon his summer trip to the Catskills, as a form of 
recreation. He held that every man should have some side 
line of pursuit, which might serve to divert his mind from the 
graver work of his habitual vocation. For himself he found 
this side line of pursuit in historical researches. He was a his- 
torian, indeed, by nature and by habit. This more or less col- 
ored all his work. In anniversary and other memorial dis- 
courses preached by him, he has put on record the history of 
the First Church, and largely that of this community. He may 
fairly be said to have followed a historical method in conduct- 
ing funerals. If his short discourses on funeral occasions have 
been preserved, and could be collected, they would constitute 
an invaluable body of historical and biographical material. 
Early in his pastorate, he adopted systematic measures for 
securing trustworthy information concerning the men with 
whom he was associated. His own autobiography was written 
in the carrying out of these measures. It is to his taste for 
historical study, and his appreciation of the importance of 
placing historical material on record, where it can be found for 
use, instead of allowing it to vanish in oblivion, that our Cay- 
uga County Historical Society owes its existence. But while 

♦Letter of Sir. C. S. Beach. 



- 45 - 

all these things are true, and while they show that Dr. Hawley 
put serious labor into his historical studies, it is yet none the 
less true tliat he regarded these studies as merely auxiliary 
and for diversion, while the pastorate of the church and the 
care of souls was to him the one great work of his life. 

I must omit all details respecting the part he took in found- 
ing this society, and respecting his service as its president dur- 
ing the first decade of its existence. This I could not properly 
do, except for the fact that these matters have been fully and 
competently discussed and placed on record in the addresses 
made at our memorial meeting, held the 28tii of November 
last,* and in the admirable address of Mr. William H. Seward, 
his successor in office, at our annual meeting held last month. 

THE IROQUOIS AND THE JESUIT MISSIONS. 

I must not, however, pass by the most important historical 
work done by liim, namely, his calling attention to the history 
of the Iroquois tribes, and to the work of the Jesuit mission- 
aries among them. It was during one of his summer vacations 
at the Catskill mountain house, that his friend Mr. Lenox, of 
New York, conversed with him respecting this field, and put 
him into possession of important literature on the subject. 
This circumstance, together with his relations to certain citi- 
zens of Auburn and of Cayuga County, h?d much to do M'ith 
leading him to the investigations which ultimately proved so 
fruitful. But it is in itself also an interesting fact that this 
son of the Puritans should thus become the historian of the 
Jesuits. 

In 1517, Martin Lather nailed his famous ninety-five theses 
to the door of the castle church. Seventeen years later, in 
1534, Ignatius Loyola and his six companions took the vows 

*See Auburn papers of Dec. 1, 1885. The addresges referred to are printed in pp. 3-44 of 
these Collections (pp. 3-20 of this memorial pamphlet). 



- 4:6 - 

which constituted them the founders of the society of the 
Jesuits. The movement headed by Luther, and that headed by 
Loyola, differed widely in many respects, but they were alike 
protests against evils then existing in the religious world. 
They were also alike in the intense vitality and earnestness 
that characterized each of them. One of the manifestations of 
this new life, both among Roman Catholics and Protestants, was a 
revived interest in the work of the conversion of heathen peoples 
to Christianity. To the men thus interested, the then newly 
discovered continent of America afforded an attractive field 
of operations. The Jesuits were doing missionary work in 
Brazil as early as 1550. In 1556, John Calvin and the 
church at Geneva sent fourteen religious teachers with the 
Huguenot colony that came t<:) Villegagnon, near Bio Janiero 
(McClintock and Strong, vol. VI., page 356). In 1564, the 
Huguenot colony in Florida had for one of its aims the con- 
version of the natives. John Gilmary Shea says that Roman 
Catholic missionary efforts attended the expeditions of De Soto, 
in 1539, and of Menendez in 1565. Nowhere did this mission- 
ary zeal make itself more manifest than across the belt of 
country through which now runs the Canada frontier. The 
Puritan colonies in New England, and the French colonies in 
Canada, alike kept in mind from the first the idea of the con- 
version of the natives. 

According to the first paper in our Historical Collections Num- 
ber Three, the first Roman Catholic missionary within the pres- 
ent limits of our state was the Franciscan Father Joseph 
dela Roche Daillon, who visited the Neuter nation, then living 
on both sides of the Niagara river, in 1626. At that time the 
associates of the ancestors of Dr. Hawley's father were seeking 
the charter which they finally obtained in 1628, the charter of 
the Massachusetts colony. Their seal, when they obtained it, 
bore as its device an Indian uttering the Macedonian cry : 
" Come over and help us" (Library of Universal Knowledge 



- 47 - 

x:30). Already in 1621, Robert Cusliman, an associate of 
Dr. Hawley's maternal ancestor, John Alden, had written to 
England of Indian converts near Plymouth (Ibid.). In 164.Q 
occurred the martyrdom of Isaac Jogues among the Mohawks. 
From 1642, John Megapolensis of Albany had been making 
endeavors to evangelize the Mohawks, and in time, numbers 
of them were received to the membership of the Dutch church 
in Albany.* Meanwhile, during these same years, and in some 
instances earlier, Roger Williams, Thomas May hew. Bourn, 
John Eliot, and others, were laboring among the natives of 
New England. The Jesuit Relations used by Dr. Hawley cover 
the period from 1632 to 1672. At this later date, just before 
the breaking out of King Philip's war, it is said that there were 
4,000 praying Indians within the limits of the New England 
colonies, including fourteen settlements in the colony of Massa- 
chusetts,f — Indians who had made progress in civilization, who 
practiced agriculture and trade, and who had their own con- 
gregations and native preachers, and the Bible translated in 
their own language. 

It is true that the missionary work of both Jesuit and Puritan 
was largely rendered fruitless, through the rum, the greed, and 
the immorality of adventurers and public men, French, English, 
and Dutch ; it is further true that the Protestant and Roman 
Catholic differed widely both in their methods of work, and in 
the kind of the immediate results which they sought; but it is 
equally true that, in the matters of personal heroism, of devotion, 
and of skillful working for a purpose, the Jesuit, the Baptist, the 
Dutchman, and the Puritan alike made records that are simply 
mao^nificent. 



*0nce. at least, Jogues owed his escape from a violent death to the influence of this 
Protestant Dutch pastor and missionary. 

t" WTien King Philip's war broke out, there were in the fourteen towns in Massa- 
chusetts, some 1,150 praying Indians, as they were called, besides others in the other 
colonies— in all perhaps 4C00." Richard Markham's Narrative History of King Philip's 
War, page 100. See also Library of Universal Knowledge x : 30. 



- 48 - 

In one imporfant respect, the Jesuits have had greatly the 
advantage of their Protestant contemporaries. From the begin- 
ning of their operations in America, they were an organized 
body — probably the most strongly organized body on the earth, 
with resources like those possessed by great nations ; and with 
arrangements for preserving full records of their doings, written 
from their own point of view. The Protestant laborers, on the 
other hand, were comparatively unorganized, with small re- 
sources, less careful in preserving the records of their work. 
When Dr. Hawley undertook bis studies in this direction, he 
had access, in his own library or in those of his friends, to sets 
of the reports made by the early Jesuit missionaries. There 
had been a time when the Relations had become rare books, dif- 
ficult to obtain for use; but they were in existence, and capable 
of being restored to the public ; and this fact renders the work 
of the Jesuits far easier to trace than that of most of their con- 
temporaries of the 17th century. 

Dr. Hawley's successive historical productions were published 
in the Auburn Advertiser, before appearing in pamphlet form. 
The first of them was " The Jesuit missions among the 
Oayugas," published as a pamphlet in 1876. It was simply a 
translation of selections from the Relatiojis, with a few not 
very important notes explaining the selections. This was repub- 
lished in 1879, with notes and enlargements, the latter including 
a map and many valuable notes by General John S. Clark. In 
the same year, the Historical Society published the journal of 
Lieut. Hardenbergh, and extracts from other journals, giving an 
account of Sullivan's campaign in 1879, with notes and maps 
by Gen. Clark, and a biographical sketch by Dr. Hawley. At 
about the same time occurred the centennial celebration at 
Aurora, commemorating events in General Sullivan's campaign, 
with the publication of Dr. Hawley's address at the celebration. 
Then came the successive annual addresses, from 1881 on, made 
up of matters pertaining to Iroquois antiquities, and along with 



- 41) - 

these, the successive installments of the " Early Chapters of Sen 
eca History." These have been extensively annotated since their 
first publication, the annotations including a map and many notes 
by General Clark, and will soon appear in our Cayuga Countv 
Historical Society Collections No. three. In 1884 and 1885 
Dr. Hawley was publishing his "Early Chapters of Mohawk 
History." This work, yet more important than either of the 
preceding, has been subjected to the same processes of annotation 
and map illustration wnth the others, and it is to be presumed 
that, when the Society is ready to publish it, the copy will be 
forthcoming. The publication of the last section of it in the 
Advertiser was the last work done by Dr. Hawley before he died. 
He intended to complete the series by similar works on the 
Onondagas and the Mohav^ks. It is to be hoped that some one 
will be found to take up this unfinished labor of his, and also 
that the sections already done will be published by some one in 
more popular form. 

These translations, themselves, are but a small part of the 
work which Dr. Hawley has accomplished in making the trans- 
lations. Another might have made the same selections and 
turned them into English, without at all approximating to the 
results which he has reached. He has succeeded in getting the 
ear of the public, and calling the attention of Roman Catholic 
and Protestant alike to these portions of our history. As his 
work progressed, he catne into correspondence with other men, 
distinguished in similar studies. He became a medium through 
whom Cayuga county men, who had collections of books or of 
objects, or who were otherwise interested in local history, wer- 
brought into communication with one another, and with distin- 
guished men at a distance. It came to be the case that when 
a farmer anywhere in this vicinity ploughed up an old medal, 
or other aboriginal relic, he sent word to Dr. Hawley concerning 
it. He stimulated the work of all individual collectors, and 
of all historical societies, in the region formerly inhabited by 



- 50 - 

the five nations. Many were eager to join him, so far as they 
could, in these studies. I am not well enough informed so that 
it would be fair for me to undertake any account of his rela- 
tions with his co-laborers ; he himself mentions, with especial 
expressions of appreciation, the help of Mr. T. P. Case in trans- 
lation work, and the collections of rare and valuable maps and 
books and other objects, as well as the personal assistance, of 
Mr. John H. Osborne and General John S. Clark. It was 
especially an important thing that Dr. Hawley did so much to 
place the chain and compass of General Clark, and the big brain 
of their owner, at the service of men who are engaged in the 
study of American history. 

It is not merely, therefore, that Dr, Hawley translated a few 
pages of the old French of the Jesuit Relations into English 
but that, in so doing, he became the centre of a movement in 
American historical studies. In the course of the movement, 
through the labors of the men engaged in it, many hundreds 
of sites have been located ; the locating of them has thrown 
light upon the meaning of such old records as existed ; the 
old records and the local traditions have thus been bi'ought 
together so as to interpret one another, and be interpreted by 
the topography ; in fine, whole sections of local history have 
been changed from a half-intelligible, and therefore obscure and 
uninteresting condition, into a clear and living body of facts 
He who should compare the " Jesuit Missions Among the Cay- 
ugas," as published in 1876, with the works that have succeeded 
it, could not fail to see the progress that has been made. 
In much that ten years ago was vague and uncertain, we are 
now able to sift the true from the false, and to see the events, 
truthfully and vividly, as they occurred. 

There is something well worth notice in the appreciation 
which Dr. Hawley's efforts have met. In his publications con- 
cerning the Jesuits, he abstained from criticising their methods, 
or drawing comparisons between them and others. He simply 



- 51 - 

selected those parts of the records that were best worth read- 
ing, and then let them tell their story in their own way. His 
point of view was that of an American citizen, interested in 
all great deeds that have been wrought on American soil, and 
as proud of all that was admirable in these men, as if he had 
been separated from them by no bar of difference of creed. I 
have heard the spirit he thus displayed spoken of as if there 
were something rare and remarkable in it. Doubtless it is less 
common than it ought to be, but I do not think it is very un- 
common. Test this statement for an instant. Some scores of 
times. Dr. Hawley's work respecting the Jesuits has been men- 
tioned in the secular papers, and in those of the Protestant 
denominations, and often in terms of warm admiration ; can 
any one point to a single instance in which leading Protestants 
have found fault with it, on account of his kindliness of spirit 
toward the Jesuits? Certainly, we do not approve the things 
that seem to us wrong, in the Jesuits and in their deeds and 
teachings ; we earnestly hold that our disapproval is not mere 
prejudice, but an intelligent verdict, founded on evidence. 
But this circumstance constitutes no reason why we should be 
blind to any great or good achievements they have accom- 
plished ; we know that we ought to admire them when they 
deserve admiration ; we mean to do it, and we think that we 
succeed in awarding to them a fair and candid appreciation. 

It is pleasant to put on record the fact that Dr. Hawley's 
services were not unrecognized by .Roman Catholics, When 
he died, kind things were said of him in the churches of that 
persuasion in the city.* Three clergymen of the Roman church, 
and many of their parishioners, were present at the funeral 
services in the First Presbyterian church. f Distinguished 
Roman Catholic clergymen wrote, expressing their apprecia- 
tion of the man and their regret for his loss.* It goes without 

*See Appendix II. 

+See the accounts of the funeral, published in the Auburn papers of Dec. 1, 1885. 



- 52 - 

saying that all manifestations of this sort are gratifying to 
every patriotic American. The theological differences which 
part us are fundamental ; we are never likely to ignore or to 
compromise them ; bu fc we fought together, shoulder to shoulder, 
when we saved the union; we ought to be fighting together 
now against intemperance, and against public corruption, and 
against illiteracy, and against the growing tendencies to com- 
munism, and against all other forms of social evil. Unless 
Roman Catholic and Protestant can join hands for overthrow- 
ing the common enemy, our country is in grave and imminent 
peril. If we were well united for these aims, where is the form 
of organized evil that could stand before us for a moment ? 
If Dr Hawley's work has contributed something to a better 
understanding between us, that is one of the great things which 
his life has accomplished. 

HIS CATHOLICITY OF SPIRIT. 

Dr. Hawley's catholicity of spirit was not displayed toward 
men of the Roman church only. During his pastorate, the 
Presbyterian churches of the city increased in number from 
two to five, and he was a sort of senior pastor in every one of 
them. He succeeded in making his young fellow pastors for- 
get his seniority of position, in the love and respect they paid 
him for his friendliness and his personal worth. The churches 
of other denominations in the city increased in number and in 
strength, but they never outgrew the mutual cordiality that 
existed between them and the pastor of the First church."* If 
our Jonathan had a David, to whom he was knit more closely 
than to any of the rest of us, that David was Dr. Brainard, 
the rector of St. Peter's church, and next to himself the senior 
pastor in the city. If this intimacy had any influence on the 
feelings of the rest of us, it was not that we loved Jonathan 
the less for it, but that for his sake we loved David more. 



*See Appendix III. 



- 53 - 

THE END. 

The career of our friend closed suddenly, A completed 
year of pastoral labor, with its customary anniversary sermon ; 
three days later, a completed section of his work on Iroquois 
history ; a day later, a rupture of a blood vessel in the brain, 
attended by a swift recognition of the fact that the time of his 
departure was at hand, and that he was ready to go; then a 
few days of partly conscious existence, not unattended by hope 
on the part of his friends ;* and then, on the evening of Thanks- 
giving day, the final closing of his eyes. His funeral was 
thronged by clergy and citizens of all classes and all religious 
persuasions. The six clergymen who carried the casket were 
of five religious denominations. The services were conducted 
by his tried friends. Dr. Hogarth, of Geneva, whom he had 
known longest, and who had officiated at his marriage, with 
Professors Huntington and Hopkins of the seminary, and Dr. 
Brainard. The following Sunday evening a memorial service 
was held in the First church. Dr. Brainard presided. In it 
participated the faculty of the seminary, the chaplain of the 
state prison, and the pastoi's and people of fourteen of the city 
churches, of eight different ecclesiastical connections f Few 
men in Auburn have ever been as much honored, and none 
have ever been so honored with demonstrations of posthumous 
respect, as Dr. Hawley. And in his case, these tributes were 
spontaneous. They expressed the verdict of his fellow citizens 
concerning him. He was a gifted man, and a good man ; but 
especially he was a man who aimed to be useful to his fellow 
men, rather than to exercise power over them ; who desired to 
be loved and to love others, rather than to be admired by them ; 
and who, consequently, was powerful as well as useful, and won 
admiration as well as love. 



♦Accounts of the seizure, and notes of his condition from day to day may be found 
in the files of .the Auburn papers. 
tSee Appendix IV. 



APPENDIX. 



Note. — This appendix is not a general collection of interest- 
ing utterances bj Dr. Hawley or concerning him. It is not 
even a representative selection of such utterances. At the 
time of his illness and death, and afterward, notices of him 
appeared in the dispatches of the Associated Press, in the edi- 
torial columns, the correspondence, and the news columns of 
the several local papers, and of the New York Evangelist^ the 
Philadelphia Presbyterian^ the Utica Morning Herald, and several 
other papers secular and religious. Official action was taken 
by the Presbytery to which he belonged, by the church of 
which he had been pastor, by some of the other Presbyterian 
churches, by the several Boards of the seminary, by various 
other Boards and Societies with which he was connected, and 
by bodies that were interested in his historical researches. 
Notices of him appeared in the memorial papers of the insti- 
tutions at which he graduated, or which be served in some 
fiducial capacity. Many private letters concerning him were 
received by his friends. If all these materials, so far as they are 
suited for publication, were printed in full, they would form a 
volume of some size. A reasonably full selection from them, 
so made as fairly to represent the whole, would be dispropor- 
tionately bulky for a pamphlet like the present one. 

In fine, the first and the last of the following five articles are 
appended because of their distinctive character ; the interve- 
ning three, as interpreting what is said in the memorial address 
in regard to the attitude of the different Christian bodies in 
Auburn toward Dr. Hawley. 



- 56 - 
I. 

Note on Page 42. 

Extract from a Letter of Dr. Hawhy^ from St. Croix, 

Nov. 20, 1867. 

" I write yoa after two days of most fearful excitement, now 
partially allayed. Monday, at about three o'clock p. m., the 
island was visited by an earthquake, which with brief intervals 
of quiet has continued until nine o'clock this morning. The 
first shock was the heaviest, and was so terrible that no words 
can conv^ey to you the awful scene. Not a breath of air stirred 
in the burning heat ; the sun was pale, and the sky of an ashy 
hue ; a rushing sound, and then the earth rocked, so that it 
was difficult to keep one's feet, the whole shock lasting about 
a minute and a half. It seemed as if the earth must open and 
swallow us up. I was in the court yard of the Government 
House, the only place of escape from the reception room of the 
governor, where we were awaiting an interview with him by 
appointment, and from which we ran down a long flight of stone 
steps, the vast building rocking like a cradle. The marble pave- 
ment literally waved like water under our feet ; the trees swayed 
to and fro as if in a tempest, though the air was still as death. 
I thought of none in the awful moment but the dear ones at 
home, and lifted a prayer that God would be merciful. 

Scarcely had the shock ceased, when a cry of terror was 
heard in the street, and on passing out the gate of the court- 
yard, we met the people flying panic-stricken to the more ele- 
vated parts of the town, for the sea was coming in like a wall 
of water some thirty feet high, and threatening to engulph the 
town. Here was a new peril, but it was quickly over, though 
great damage was done, and some lives lost. It was in this 
way that the Monongahela, our noble ship of war, lying about 
half a mile from the shore at anchor, was in about three min- 
utes thrown high and dry upon the beach. Buildings have 
been thrown down, or so rent as to be unsafe ; and almost every 
conceivable injury inflicted, which an earthquake could produce. 

The night was one of great terror. Every few minutes a 
shock of greater or less severity would come, until the welcome 
morning. The whole population which is largely negro, was in 



-57 - 

a state of passionate excitement, screaming, praying, not daring 
to remain in their homes, and scarcely trusting the ground on 
which they stood. Some two or three thousand came in from 
the country estates, excited, bewildered, and reclcless. A strong 
police force, with the soldiers, prevented plunder. The shocks 
were repeated through Tuesday, keeping up the fearful uncer- 
tainties as to the ultimate result. We could not tell from one 
hour to another what might occur. The earth was in a constant 
tremor during the intervals of the shocks, and it was by no 
means difiicult to tliiuk that the island might disappear at any 
moment. The sense of insecurity was awful. The sickly look 
of the sun and the ashen paleness of the sky, with the whole 
unnaturalness of the face of nature continued. The heat was 
intense. Sulphurous fumes were distinctly detected. The sec- 
ond night was, with some alleviations, a repetition of the first. 
But to-day we are hoping the worst is over. 

The Susquehanna with Admiral Palmer came over from St. 
Thomas this morning. The disaster has been even more severe 
there." 



II. 

Note on Page 51. 
From the Auburn Daily Advertiser of Decemher 1, 1885. 

" In St. Mary's Roman Catholic church, Sunday morning, 
Rev. Father Mulheron referred to the death of Rev. Charles 
Hawley, D. D., in the following terms : 

It may not seem the place to speak the eulogy of a Protes- 
tant from a Catholic pulpit. Especially may it seem strange 
when the object of it is a Protestant minister ; but in the case 
of Rev. Dr. Hawley, who lies dead at this moment, I feel that 
an exception can and ought to be made. He was a gentleman 
of the highest order of social and intellectual qualities, and a 
citizen truly worthy of the esteem and love of all. For us 
Catholics, he was a man who was superior to all petty preju- 
dices, dealing with our church and its history in that spirit of 



- 5S - 

justice which is at once the product of a large mind and of a 
heart loving the truth. We owe him a deep and lasting grati- 
tude, and it is our great loss, as it is that of this community, 
that death has taken him from us. His Relations of the early 
Jesuit missions is written with an elegance and ease which 
speaks of ripe scholarship, and so Catholic is it in its tone that 
I commend it to you as a book of great merit. Every family 
ought to possess these memoirs as it tells the story of the early 
missionaries and their labors, in a manner to entertain old and 
young and to interest and edify all. Would that we had more 
men of Dr. Hawley's stamp, to break down the cold barrier of 
social and religious prejudice, and to lead men to that common 
fellowship which ought to be the distinguishing feature of our 
American citizenship. Whatever manner of respect you can 
show to the memory of this noble gentleman, I hope you will 
display it, for he is certainly deserving of it in no ordinary 
degree. 

And at the church of the Holy Family, Eev. Father Sey- 
mour, before closing his sermon, said that in Dr. Hawley's 
death a great loss had been sustained, not only by the people 
over whom he had presided for over twenty-eight years, but by 
the people of Auburn in general, and Catholics in particular. 
Catholics of the state owe to Dr. Hawley a debt which they 
could never repay, for placing before the public the true history 
of the suffering and exposure and martyrdom of the early 
Catholic missionaries. The Catholics of Auburn should sym- 
pathize with his family in their bereavement, and he trusted 
that the First Presbyterian church will be blessed with a succes- 
sor worthy of him." 

From " Letters to the Editor^ Daily Advertiser^ Dec. 8, 1885. 

" St. Joseph's Chuech, 
Tkoy, Dec. 1, 1885. 

Mr. Oeo. R. Peck^ Editor of the Auburn Daily Advertiser : 

Dear Sir : — Through your paper of the 27th ult, I received 
the sad news of Dr. Hawley's death. He sent me, last April, 



-59- 

two very kind letters in relation to his interesting works, the 
" Early Chapters " of the Cayuga, Seneca and Mohawk history. 
He took a deep interest in the early history of the state of 
New York, and with a very liberal mind brought to light, in 
the English language, the wonderful works of the Jesuit fath- 
ers in North America. 

I personally and deeply regret the death of Dr. Hawley ; his 
historical knowledge and his pen would have been very useful 
in our present work, the early mission of the Jesuit fathers in 
the Mohawk valley, and most particularly the Beatification of 
the Kev. Isaac Jogues, S. J., Rene Goupil. S. J., and Cather- 
ine Tegakonita, the Iroquois virgin. Dr. Ilawley said in one 
of his letters to me, last April, ' I read the Pilgrim with special 
interest.' 

General Clark of Auburn, J. G. Shea of New York, and Dr. 
Hawley have [been] great friends and great helpers in the cause 
of Father Isaac Jogues. 

Please accept this tribute of respect and esteem in favor of 
Dr. Hawley. 

Truly and respectfully yours, 

JOSEPH LOYZANCE, S. J." 



III. 

Note on Page 52. 

From the Advertiser of December 1, 1885. 

" An unusually large congregation attended divine service in 
St. Peter's church, Sunday. In the course of his sermon, the 
rector, Rev. Dr. Brainard, made touching allusion to the decease 
of his co-laborer in the ministry, Rev. Dr. Hawley, referring to 
his lovely and symmetrical character, and to the fact that the 
deceased had honored him with his friendship for twenty-three 



- 60 - 

years. He closed by reading the following memorial, which 
was adopted by a rising vote of the whole congregation : 

To the Congregation of tlie First Presbyterian ChurcJi, Auburn^ N. Y.: 

Greeting : — The rector, wardens and vestry of St Peter's 
church, Auburn, N. Y., with the congregation assembled for 
j^orship on Sunday, Nov. 29, 1885, having heard that it has 
seemed good to our Heavenly Father to call to the rest of par- 
adise our friend and brother, the Rev. Charles Hawley, D. D., 
pastor of the First Presbyterian church of this city, desire to 
express their profound sympathy with the afflicted famdy and 
bereaved church, in this dark hour of grief. 

Three years ago we rejoiced with you in the celebration of 
the twenty-fifth anniversary of a pastorate so honorable alike 
to pastor and people ; and now in the sad trial and deep sorrow 
which come from the knowledge that the pastor is taken from 
the flock which he so gently led in green pastures and beside 
still waters, and that his beloved face will never again be seen, 
nor his kindly voice be heard v/ithin the earthly temple, we 
would weep also with you who weep. 

May the God of all the families of the earth send to the 
widow and the fatherless, the rich treasures of his divine com- 
fort; and to that dear home and church alike grant the peace 
and sweet assurance which are treasured in the words of Holy 
Scripture: 'I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me. 
Write, From henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the 
Lord ; even so saith the Spirit ; for they rest from their labors 
and their works do follow them.' 

' They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firm- 
ament and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars 
forever and ever.' 

In behalf of the vestry and people of St. Peter's church, 
Auburn, N. Y. 

JOHN BRAIN ARD, Rector. 
Fred I. Allen, Clerk. 

Many moistened eyes were seen as the touching services 
closed with singing the 260th hymn from the Hymnal, ' Asleep 



- 61 - 

in Jesns, blessed sleep.' Prayers for the afflicted family were 
offered and selections from the burial office read, closing with 
the benediction." 



From the Advertiser of December 4, 1885. 

" The pastor and officiary of the Wall street Methodist 
Episcopal church met last night and adopted the following 
resolutions : 

Whereas, The Rev. Charles Hawley, D. D., late pastor of 
the First Presbyterian church, Auburn, has been called from 
toil to rest, from the church militant to the church triumph- 
ant, therefore be it 

Resolved^ That having recognized in Dr. Hawley a faithful 
and honored ambassador of our Lord Jesus Christ, a kind and 
loving brother, and a wise counselor ; we desire to express 
our profound syra))athy with the bereaved family and afflicted 
church in this dark hour of trial. 

In behalf of the church and congregaition, 

THOMAS SHARPE, PASTOii, 
Dec. 8, 1885." 



- 62 - 
IV. 

Note on Page 53. 

At the Memorial Service a printed program was used, the 
contents of which were as follows : 

FIRST PAGE. 

PASTORS' 

MEMORIAL SERVICE, 

Sunday Evening, December 6, 1885. 

IN MEMORY OF 

REV. CHARLES HAWLEY, D. D. 

Pastor of the First Presbyterian Chui-ch. 

Auburn, N. Y. 

1857— 1885. 

+ 

Born August 19, iSig. 

Died November 26, 1885. 

" He being dead yet speaketh.^'' — Heb. 11:4. 

SECOND PAGE. 

Pastors and Churches Participating. 

Rev. John Brainard, D. D., Rector St. Peter's Episcopal Church. 
Rev. F. a. D. Launt, - Rector St. John's Episcopal Church. 

Rev. Jos. K. Dixon, ... Pastor First Baptist Church. 
Rev. D. Moore, D. D., - - - • Second Baptist Church. 
Rev. G. P. Avery, - - - Pastor First Methodist Chwch. 

Rev. Thomas Sharpe. - Pastor Wall St. Methodist Church. 

Rev. W. H. Allbright, - Pastor Second Presbyterian Chtirch. 

Rev. C. C. Hemenway, - Pastor Cent?-al Presbyterian Church. 
Rev. F. H. Hinman, - - Pastor Calvary Presbyterian Church. 
Rev. a. S. Hughey, Pastor Westminster Presbyterian Church. 

Rev. J. J. Brayton, - - - Pastor Universalist Church, 

Rev. a. S. Hale. ... - Pastor Disciples Chtirch. 

Rev. Geo. Feld, - - Pastor St. Lucas' German Church. 

Rev. G. C. Carter. - - - - Pastor A. Z. M. E Church. 
Rev. Wm. Searls, D. D., .... Chaplain Prison. 

Prof. E. A. Huntington, D. D., - Theological Seminary. 



- 63 - 

THIRD PAGE. 

SERVICES. 
Organ Prelude. 
" Abide with me." 

Scripture. — Psalm 90 ; 2 CoK. 5 : i-io. 
Memorial Hymn, - - - Flagler. 

PRAYER. 

Sentence, " Blessed are the dead." 

ADDRESSES. 

" It is not death to die." 1203. 

ADDRESSES. 

" Let saints below in concert sing." 852. 

ADDRESSES. 

" My Jesus as thou wilt." 992. 

BENEDICTION. 
FOURTH PAGE. 

" They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and they 
that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever." — Pan. 12 : 3. 

4- 
" I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith :" 
— 2 Tim. 4 : 6. 

" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea saith the 
Spirit that they may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow them. — 
Rev. 14: 13. 

REV. JOHN BRAINARD, D. V) , Presiding, 

For tiventy-two years associated witk Dr. Hatvley in friendship and the work of 

the Gospel ministry in this city. 



The service as actually held differed from that announced in 
the program, mainly in the fact that Drs. Moore and Searls 
were not able personally to be present. The following account 
of it, is, with a few abbreviations and other changes, that pre- 
pared by the reporters of the Advertiser and published in the 
issue of that papei- of December 7. That report says of the 
congregation : 

" It was composed of the representatives of all creeds hav- 
ing a foothold in the city, and was in every sense a representa- 



- 64 - 

tive audience. Tt was an occasion unprecedented, perhaps, in 
the church history of Auburn. Much feehng was manifested 
and tlie spoken tributes to the departed from the city's pastors 
were in the tenderest strain. Long before the bell had c^-ased 
to toll the spacious auditorium was densely packed with a 
sympathizing people. 

The pastor's large chair was heavily draped, and also the 
pulpit. Two bunches of calla lilies, tied with white ribbon, 
on the back of the chair and in front of the pulpit, contra'^ted 
with the deep mourning with wliich they were surrounded." 

The platform was occupied by the clergymen who partici- 
pated in the services. The scripture lesson was read by Pro- 
fessor Welch of the Theological Seminary, and the prayer 
offered by Pi'ofessor Beecher. 

DR. BKAINARD 

was the first speaker, and he said it was because of his long 
association (extending over a period of twenty-two years) with 
Dr. Hawley, that he had been chosen to preside at this meet- 
ing. He would rather have occupied a humbler position in 
this house of God to night, and mingle his tears with those 
that suffer a great loss. We are here to-night, said Dr. Brain- 
ard, to testify of our great love and admiration for him who 
so long occupied this pulpit and filled this place so well. We 
are here to ascribe glory to God for the gift of such a brother, 
for the blessed gift of grace which so equipped him for his 
noble work, and for the ability with which during all these cir- 
cling years, he filled joyously the place in this community as pas- 
tor, teacher, guide, and public-minded citizen. We are assem- 
bled to testify to our loss, and to our sympathy for the afflicted 
family. How thoroughly did Dr. Hawley, as a Christian minis- 
ter and as a citizen, fulfil the duties of his calling ! He was not 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, and held it up as the only 
cure for the sins of the world. It is not our purpose to pre- 
sent any lengthened sketch of his character. More time and 
preparation than we now have at our disposal would be 
required. We are here as a band of pastors to give God the 
glory of his life. I think of him to-day as full of rest and 
peace in the paradise of God, with those with whom he has 
held sweet communion and seen them joass to their reward. 



- 65 - 

I think of him as one who has washed his robes in the blood 
of the Lamb. We should not have this earnest man pass from 
our midst and we not be better. God help us to live honest 
Christian lives and to go home as calmly and triumphantly as 
did our dear brother. 

DR. SEARLS. 

Dr. Brainard then read a letter from Dr. Wm. Searls, 
regretting his inability to be present on account of ill health. 
He said in his letter : " None could hold Dr. Hawley in higher 
esteem than myself, and it would afford me a mournful pleas- 
ure to be with you, and take some part in the service. I have 
known Dr. Hawley intimately for the past twenty years, and a 
nobler and truer friend I never found. His catholic spirit 
manifested itself everywhere, and at all times. His charity 
was as broad as the gospel he so long and faithfully preached, 
and his sympathy knew no bounds." 

REV. J. J, BRAYTON 

was next introduced, and after saying that he was standing on 
holy ground, said that he was a better man for having known 
Dr. Hawley, He said that when he came here a stranger, he 
found a brother and friend in Dr. Hawley, and he had often 
thought that if he were sick and dying he would like to have 
Dr. Hawley come and pray over him, for since his mother died 
lie had never listened to a prayer that impressed him as did 
that of Dr. Hawley. This man wore no disguises. To know 
him briefly was to know him thoroughly. In his address was 
courtesy without studied style. Men are like coins, however 
garnished on the exterior, they have no value except in the 
quality of the material. His joy and sorrow, his sympathy 
and love, and his religion were all genuine. In his presence, 
passion ceased to rage. Because of the genuineness of his 
character his influence increased with the radius of the years. 
Mr. Brayton said : Show me a man who is a true friend and I 
will guarantee him in all other things. It is as a true friend 
that we must mourn his loss. Such men are rare. He belongs 
to the common family of those on earth and those in heaven. 

REV. A. S. HALE 

next spoke and said that his acquaintance with Dr. Hawley was 



slight, but in all he had seen and read and heard of Dr. Haw- 
ley, his Christian manhood had most impressed him. This was 
the highest possible praise. Those are the truest who live clo- 
sest to the Master. " What I do thou knowest not now but 
shalt know hereafter," Jesus said. It applies to occasions like 
this. Winter goeth before spring, seed time before the harvest, 
and from the dead seed come the ripened fruits. Jesus himself 
was made perfect by suffering. For us there is no crown with- 
out a cross. 

REV. G. P. AVERY 

then spoke. He said that it frequently happens that the gospel 
minister is called into the home of those who have been visited 
by death, where he may be an absolute stranger. There seems 
but one thing for the friends to do ; they can speak of the vir- 
tues of him whom they mourn ; from this the minister comes 
to understand in some degree their loss. It has seemed very 
inappropriate that I, who had never looked into the face of Dr. 
Hawley, should take part in these services. I never saw him ; 
and yet as I listen to the speeches and words of love and sym- 
pathy from the lips of those who knew him, I feel that I, too, 
have some idea of the large place he occupied here, and the 
extent of your loss. There is no better proof of his character 
than that Christians of all denominations should come together 
to pay respect to his memory. I know of no better evidence 
of a man's usefulness than when he dies and the multitude 
mourns his loss. 

At the close of Mr. Avery's remarks, the choir and congre- 
gation joined in singing the 1203d hymn, " It is not death to 
die," and then 

REV. F. H. HINMAN 

was introduced, who said that he must speak from the stand- 
point of first impressions, and perhaps the tribute will be the 
greater, though not the tribute of the lips. The characteristic 
which drew him closest to Dr. Hawley was the simplicity of 
his greatness. It is no small thing to take out of the dull out- 
line of past history, the early Jesuit missions of this state, and 
so arrange it as to be quoted as authority at the Vatican. But 
it is greater honor to be the honored and successful pastor of 



- 67 - 

such a church as this through the long range of twenty-eight 
years. Yet in the midst of all this greatness was his simplicity, 
which is the crowning jewel of all greatness. If asked 
to-night to mass in one word the expression of his heart, Mr. 
Hinman said it would be loneliness, because he whom his 
heart had learned to love has gone to the world above us. The 
last sentence of the sermon which Dr. Hawley preached at the 
ordination of the speaker was in these words : " The Spirit is 
lovingly saying. Come ; * * * may they both but be the 
growth of that comforting word, ' Come unto me all ye that 
labor and I will give you rest.' " The Spirit has called him 
and said, "Come unto me." 

REV. G. C. CARTER 

next spoke : " He being dead yet speaketh !" says the bible, 
and true it is, for Dr. Hawley speaks to-night. He is speaking 
through the pastors and this large congregation. Mr. Carter 
had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Hawley once. When his 
appointment to Auburn was announced, his predecessor said to 
him, " You will find a firm friend in Dr. Hawley." That 
meant no small thing to the speaker, for he was in a different 
situation from the other pastors who have spoken. He was 
placed in a position to feel great love for this great man. Dr. 
Hawley had given him the hand of love, and he felt that he 
was in the presence of a friend. It is the prominent men in a 
community that mould the others. Mr. Carter felt as if he 
and his people had met with a severe loss in his death, but we 
shall be benefited by his life, for he has moulded your minds. 
You ask how I know it ? I see it in your faces. 

REV. C. A. SMITH. 

Mr. Carter read a letter from the former pastor of Zion 
church, Bev. C. A. Smith, in which he stated he would like to 
be present at the memorial services, for he esteemed Dr. Haw- 
ley very highly and always found m him a true friend, and a 
friend of the colored race. Dr. Hawley resembled God in 
doing good to his fellow creatures. The good he has done will 
not be known in time ; it will take eternity to reveal it 



- 68 - 

REV. A. S. HUGHEY 

said it was very fitting that the youngest churcli in the city 
should be represented, as it was very dear to Dr. Hawley, who 
was chairman of the first meeting called to consider the sub- 
ject of starting a mission in west end. He was also chairman 
of the last meeting of pastors and elders of this city to organ- 
ize another Presbyterian church. He was chairman at all the 
intervening meetings and he was always interested in the enter- 
prise. The speaker had gone to Dr. Hawley for advice and 
obtained it. Westminster church feels her loss ; the elders on 
whose heads he laid hands feel the loss. It is Dr. Hawley 
ripened to maturity that I remember. I am glad to haveknown 
him. Westminster joins in your sorrow. 

REV. J. K. DIXON 

said that the next saddest words to " a dead mother," are " a 
dead pastor." I have a tribute I would like to lay upon the 
altar of this memorial service. There were many sides to the 
noble character of this grand man, but I shall speak of but few 
of them. Of his catholicity of spirit, you need no greater dem- 
onstration than is seen in this meeting to night of the pastors 
of the churches of this city. Dr. Hawley did not set the psalm 
of his life to the key of self. Our friend was large in sympa- 
thy and tender in his dealings with men because the gospel of 
Christ was in him. Next I wish to speak of his spirit of 
prayer. He was a profound believer in its efficacy, and at the 
great rink meetings he prayed as though the breath of Heaven 
was streaming through his white hair. The last sermon I 
heard him deliver was from the text, " What shall I do to be 
saved? * * * Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved," preached as only one can preach who is near- 
ing last things. If he were here to-night he would repeat it. 
The mourning of our hearts bids you heed his voice, and the 
pure whiteness of these lilies on this vacant chair bids you 
heed it. His life was a sunny one. Of his boyhood days he 
once said : " I have only sunny memories." Coleridge and 
Ruskin tell us that the leaders of the race were men who kept 
their hearts young. This man's hair was white, but summer 
was in his soul ; winter crept upon his brow, but only spring 



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was in his "heart, and he went out with whiteness of snow into 
eternal summer and eternal song of the glory which he had in 
his soul. 

REV. C. C. HEMENWAY 

had been associated with Dr. Hawley during a quarter of his 
ministry to this people, and no words could express the kind- 
ness of Dr. Eawley to the speaker. He had been a blessing to 
him in his ministry. He loved him, though how much he 
never knew until he was gone. Dr. Hawley was not only pos- 
sessed of a rare grace of character in his association with men, 
but he was staunch and true to that branch of the church 
which he espoused. There are many who are all things to all 
men, but nothing to anybody ; not so with Dr. Hawley. He 
was liberal to all yet true to his own, catholic in the true 
sense of the Apostle's creed and faithful to the church in which 
he was born and lived, and he freely contributed his strength 
to its service. He retained his loyalty. He was one of a 
thousand whose catholicity of thought took nothing from his 
loyalty to the Presbyterian church. The otlier day some one 
asked a gentleman : " Did Dr. Hawley die a Catholic V" He 
answered : " Yes." Then continuing : " Not a Roman Cath- 
olic, but a ' holy catholic' " God give us more men in the 
pulpit who can be broad without being weak. 

The congregation and choir then joined in singing the 852d 
hymn — " Let saints below in concert sing,'' when 

REV. GEORGE FELD 

was introduced. He said that if he could speak in his native 
tongue he could express himself more appropriately. The 
first time I saw him I loved him. He won my heart by his 
kindness when I was a stranger here. He spoke to me of the 
difficulties I would encounter. He sympathized with our 
church and spoke to his people about us. Not long after a 
gift of $100 was received from the Sunday school of the First 
Presbyterian church. When our church was dedicated, Dr. 
Hawley said that he hoped all Germans who had never gone 
to church would do so then. To me Dr. Hawley has always 
been the same kind friend as on the day I lirst met him. It 
seemed when I heard of his death that I had lost a kind rela- 



- 70 - 

tive. Tears of sorrow filled my eyes as I stood by his coffin. 
Dr. Hawley had learned the apostolic commandment, Love the 
brethren and love the brotherhood. May we never forget that 
he set us this example. His heart went out to all of the 
Christian churches. Men of other faith love him. "Blessed 
are the peacemakers for they see God." May this be our lot, 
and may we one and all be gathered with oar dear brother in 
the kingdom of God. 

REV. DR. E. A. HUNTINGTON 

spoke of the relations of Dr. Hawley to the seminary. He 
reviewed briefly the exciting times of 1872, when the effort 
was made to remove the seminary to Aurora, and how Dr. 
Hawley with untiring energy labored to secure the necessary 
funds to retain it in Auburn. * * * j)^ Hawley 
presided at the frequent meetings of our citizens, and proved 
just the man for the place. Through the sixty days of anxi- 
ty he was calm and hopeful. Without the aid of Dr. Hawley 
I know not how the desired end could have been reached. 
God bless his life and ministry to the seminary, church and city. 

REV. THOMAS SHARPE 

said that the fact that Dr. Hawley is dead is too keenly felt to 
need utterance. Reviewing the expression, we are compelled 
to say he is not dead but" lives in greater royalty. He being 
dead yet speaketh. Dr. Hawley possessed a high order of 
social and intellectual qualities. He was a man of great beauty 
and symmetry of character. He was a man of great force of 
character. He always exhibited a christian bearing. The 
grave cannot and will not entomb him. Dr. Hawley 's influ- 
ence is and was not confined to his own church and denomina- 
tion. His heart was too large to be contracted by denomina- 
tional views; his influence was not confined to Auburn. The 
leading associations connected with his life in this city would 
form the most fitting monument. Dr. Hawley's influence for 
the betterment of humanit}'- cannot be estimated. You cannot 
confine the influence of such a man to one church, town or 
state. It overbreaks all bounds. He has bequeathed a pre- 
cious legacy to us — a pure, devoted Christian life. 



71 



REV. W. H. ALLBRIGHT 



was the last speaker. My tribute to Dr. Hawley, he said, is 
last because it has reference to the last days of his Hfe. There 
was a marked preparation for this tinol end, unconscious to 
himself but noticeable to his family. Frequent allusions to 
death and heaven were on his lips. The church was not with- 
out its mementoes in this regard. People spoke of his growing 
mellowness, and one Sunday not long ago some one said : " Dr. 
Hawley brought down heaven in his prayer." Was there no 
significance in the text of his last sermon? If he could have 
chosen his own time of departure it could not have been at a 
more suitable time. He died at the post of duty. His end 
was peace — a fitting close for such a man and such a life. At 
no time in the last ten years could he have been better spared 
than now. He left this church a united people. During the 
past years the other churches have needed him to teach catho- 
licity and humility. The community needed his benevolence. 
He has fought the good fight, he has finished his couise, he 
kept the faith, and he was called : Servant of God, well done, 
rest from thy labor. 

The 992nd hymn was sung, and Eev. F. A. D. Launt pro- 
nounced the benediction. 



V. 

On Thanksgiving day, Nov. 26, 1885, the congregations of 
the First Presbyterian church and of the Calvary church held 
united services in the edifice of the First church, conducted by 
the pastor of Calvary church. This was a few hours before 
the death of Dr. Hawley, which took place the evening of that 
day. As a part of the services, the choir and congregation 
sang the following hymn, written for the occasion by the Kev. 
Lansing Porter, a member of the congregation : 

PRAYER FOR OUR PASTOR. 

O, God ! on this Thanksgiving day, 

While in thy courts we meet to praise, 
Deem not these mournful notes we sing, 

Discordant with our grateful lays. 



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While countless blessings crown our lives, 

While all hearts glow with happiness, 
We pause in praise to lift the prayer — 

" O, God ! our stricken Pastor bless !" 

Spare our dear Shepherd, Lord, we cry ; 

This is our plea before thy throne. 
Yet give submissive grace to add — 

" Father ! thy will, not ours be done ?" 

And when his work is finished here. 

The true faith kept, the good fight fought, 

Bestow on him the promised crown. 
When safely over Jordan brought ! 

Bestud that crown with shining stars. 

Seals of his faithful ministry ; 
And grant that he and we may share 

Thanksgiving day eternally ! 

A few (lays later, Mr. Porter wrote and published a compan- 
ion byran. 

OUR pastor's burial. 

Oppressed with overwhelming grief, 

With solemn step and bended head. 
We bring to these enshrouded courts. 

O, God ! our well-beloved dead. 

These crowded aisles, this mourning throng, 

Tell of the universal grief ; 
They further speak our christian faith 

That God alone can give relief. 

Where can we go but unto Thee ! 

Submissive to Thy high behest. 
We leave our Zion in Thy care. 

And bear our Pastor to his rest. 

And here we end our mournful strains. 

From bended knees exultant rise, 
And make these vaulted arches ring. 

With loud hosannas to the skies. 

Why should we mourn departed dead — 

Departed dead who die to live — 
Who live to share forevermore 

The bliss our risen Lord will give ? 

We glory in our Pastor's life. 

His life of faith and toil and love ; 
We glory in our Pastor's death. 

Translated now to realms above. 

Console the flock he leaves behind ! 

Our Shepherd gone, be Thou our guide, 
Till we shall reach Thine upper fold, 

Pastor and People glorified ! 



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